Deemed Again
by crestoflight3
Summary: Two years after the defeat of the Phoenix King. Three years after the adventure into a different realm. Except this time, these two groups must travel further into the unknown. Together. Featuring the original cast of Avatar and Digimon Adventure 01.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Well. Finally. Welcome. This is a story that's been, unfortunately, years in the making (ever since I first saw Avatar: The Last Airbender), and is very far from done. However, today is my first day of college, and I promised myself it would begin to be uploaded once I reached this point in my life. So here it is.

As stated, this is an Avatar/Digimon crossover; specifically, I'm crossing the universes created after the end of Avatar (two years after the fall of Phoenix King Ozai) and three years after the closing of the Digiworld for the Adventure 01 cast. This will feature both sets of characters equally, or as equally as I can manage.

This first chapter is the beginning of the first arc, The Beginning (as I call it in my head), and features the cast of Avatar.

* * *

In the palace, two guards stood watch over the throne room. Standing still, blinking only when they could no longer stop themselves and showing no outer emotion, both Firebenders had been hand-chosen by the Firelord himself. To some, their faces, vacant of expression, might have been proof of the underlying boredom that must besiege them. To others, the vacant expressions were a relief—nothing had happened to interrupt their monotone job. Wearing sleeveless red vests complete with the emblem of the Fire Nation, and shaved bald, these men knew their job very well.

Very few were allowed to pass through the overlarge doors to the throne room. The Firelord's most trusted advisors, friends, and allies, generals, rulers, and conspirers were only allowed in with permission from the Firelord, the request brought by a guard. Only two men could pass through those doors without invitation and unannounced—the penalty for not allowing the Avatar, the peacekeeper among the Four Nations and a personal acquaintance of the Firelord, admittance to see the Firelord was hefty, with no second chances.

The other man was Firelord Zuko's uncle.

As Iroh entered the guards' eyesight, both straightened imperceptibly. The brawnier of the two, but only by a pinch, opened the door as Iroh approached. The grey-haired man waved at the two, and, as he passed by, said, "Ugliamo. Nickset. I hope you are doing well. Tell me, does my nephew have tea, or should I send for some?"

The smaller man nodded in familiarity. "General Iroh. Firelord Zuko has been waiting. He seemed quite…agitated."

Iroh chuckled. "My nephew is always irate. I'll see why. If you would, Ugli, could you send some tea in? Zuko will have forgotten." The two guards nodded and bowed him in, closing the doors behind him.

The throne room was a vast misnomer. _Throne hallway _or _throne stadium_ would have been more correct. Despite taking up only a small amount of the palace, the throne room was one of the largest single spaces in the castle, a lengthy rectangle of the signature red stone extending up to a dais where the throne sat. On it sat a man.

He wasn't a man, not yet, at least. Nor was he a mere boy. Firelord Zuko, the teenage king, as some had taken to calling him, was a youth of eighteen years. He had ruled the Fire Nation for two years after the defeat of his father, Firelord Ozai. Tall and strong, with dark hair tied up atop his pale skin, many would have easily called him handsome were it not for a disfiguring scar of burned flesh along the left side of his face, reaching around his eye to his ear. Many still called him handsome; in his red ceremonial robes he looked every bit the ruler he was.

As if in contrast to his nephew, Iroh had a different look. Grey hair and beard besieged his laugh eyes lining his wrinkled face. He was well fit, but two years of little physical work had helped him achieve his old standard of pudginess, leaving him looking every bit the friendly grandfather figure he could be.

"Zuko. You honor me with your presence," he said, slowly and articulately. He stopped in front of the golden throne, smiling slightly.

From the throne, Zuko looked up. "Uncle. You've come," he said, his voice slightly raspy and soft. He stood up.

Iroh shook his head. "You forgot the tea, I see. I never understood what I did wrong in raising you to make you so ignorant of tea."

Zuko smiled at this, and, jumping down from the raised platform, embraced his relative. "You haven't changed a bit, have you? How are the others in Ba Sing Se?" he asked, leading him to a small table with, of course, a tea kettle and two cups. Iroh sniffed the simmering liquid before pouring and tasting it. He smiled widely.

"I need to meet your tea maker. I would love to know this recipe," he said, taking another gulp of the hot brown liquid. "Everyone is fine. A little lonely. Have you thought about my offer?"

"Yes, Uncle, I have. I've thought hard about it. And my response is yes. I'll do it. I need to get out of here—it's great being Firelord, but I want a few months, weeks, even days to myself, without someone constantly offering comfort or asking questions. How soon can we leave?" Zuko said eagerly. Iroh motioned for him to sit down, taking another long draught of the tea.

Licking his lips, he said, "I have a ship waiting to take us back to the Earth Nation. If you can arrange things here for your departure, we can leave within the night." He thought for a moment, then nodded, looking pleased. "Of course, I need to find this recipe first."

"Then it's settled. Hmmm…do you think it's possible that we could find a flying bison to take us there?"

"That, my nephew, is a very good question."

* * *

"Okay, now move your arms in this pattern…that's it…see, you got it! Good job!"

"…was that supposed to do something, or just look like a creepy dance?"

A dark haired, dark skinned girl glared at her brother. She turned to a boy that looked slightly younger than she was. "Now you just need to learn the next basic pattern, Aang. Then we can put them together and work on this new technique I learned from Grandfather!"

The pale boy's jaw dropped, and he put his head down. "More? Katara, isn't six patterns enough for a day?"

"It's not like they're hard or anything. Come on. I bet we could get another in before Toph comes." Katara widened her stance, and faced the small pool of water in front of them. She started pulling a ball of water up, forming it into several different spheres. "Now, you start with pattern 4, remember, with the on and off pulling…"

The boy behind them grinned, hitting his boomerang into the ground next to him. "And then you do this, and form the water this way, and wait for the tide to come. Aang gets the idea. Come on, let's do something fun for once."

Aang started to nod enthusiastically, stopping when he noticed Katara's glare. "Yeah…um, no. I should get back to practicing…" he said, straightening out his yellow tunic over red pants. He started playing with the water, massing it into one great ball. "Hey, Katara, look what I can do!"

It gathered and gathered, until the pond was mostly empty. He made it fly upward, higher, higher…

"What're you all doing?" a girl's voice came from the other side of the pool.

The water fell down. Onto a young girl with black hair in a bun, a green and tan work dress on. She sputtered for a moment before screaming, "Aang! If you dare start flying, you're done for!"

Aang stopped in mid-jump. "It's not flying. It's messing around with the air currents," he said sheepishly. In the background, Sokka laughed on the grassy ground.

"Performing mojo on air currents doesn't sound as cool as flying," the girl said, punching her arm in front of her. As she did that, the ground formed a type of bridge over the pool, and she walked over. Her eyes were a faded green, maybe brown—her black bangs messily covered most of her face. "Now, what were you going to say to me, Twinkle-Toes?"

The bald boy grimaced and looked to Katara for help. She held a hand in front of her mouth, obviously laughing silently. "Um…sorry, Toph?"

The blind girl stopped in front of him; thrusting her hand down, she created a deep circular pit under Aang. He fell in, using Air Bending to lighten the fall. "Show me you've been practicing Earth Bending, and promise you won't do that again." She waited. Katara and Sokka walked forward, interested in seeing what Aang would do.

"I promise! Can't I just Air Bend?" the boy asked, feeling the dirt around him. He looked up.

Toph laughed evilly. "What do you think? Hurry up—we don't have all day."

Sighing, Aang looked around. The dirt was thin, grainy—the pool beside the land didn't move enough to make the landscape rich in nutrients. The ground was slightly wet, and that would help him if he tried going straight up—but the ground might not support him. He didn't have the knack that Toph had in Earth Bending. If he did something wrong, she'd just make the hole deeper.

He decided to use a technique she had showed him the day before. He locked his fists together, and started to wave them to and from his stomach. The ground beneath him churned, and slowly started to ripple upward, carrying him with its momentum. Slowly but surely, he filled the hole in, now at equal height as his friends. He jumped out of the dirt around him. "How's that?"

"You're getting better. Still sloppy, but not too shabby," Toph responded, smoothing the dirt over. Despite the lack of grass, the hole was no more.

"So. Dinner?" Sokka asked, looking to each of his friends.

* * *

Two years had passed since the defeat of the Phoenix King and the soon-to-be Firelord Azula. Power had changed hands; the new rulers included Firelord Zuko and King Bumi of the Earth Nation (having moved to Ba Sing Se from Omashu after one year of denying ruling). The Northern and Southern Water tribes maintained a steady contact with each other, each gaining more as families moved south.

Only the Air Nation hadn't changed. Aang, the one hundred and fourteen year-old Avatar, was still the only Air Bender known in the land. He worked hard at mastering the four elements, while growing to be more mature. However, his love for fun had, if anything, only increased with the passing years.

In fact, walking down a side-street in Ba Sing Se toward a small subdivision popular to many, Aang was almost taller than Katara of the Southern Water tribe. Sixteen now, she kept her hair loose but for two 'hair loopies' tucked behind her ears. She and her seventeen-year old brother, Sokka, with a 'warrior's tail' on the top of his head, moved around almost as much as the Avatar, visiting friends in all three Nations. Sokka, despite having lost his Space Sword and his boomerang in a fight against the Fire Nation two years prior, had recovered the latter.

Rounding the corner, the group of four could make out the sign of _The Jasmine Dragon_, a local tea shop in a nice part of Ba Sing Se. The cook there was well-known for his fine tea; Iroh wouldn't be happy with himself unless it was perfect. Over the tea shop was his home, the home of the four of them when they didn't want to stay in the palace. Three stories high, _The Jasmine Dragon _had become one of the key points of interest in the capitol, and one of the busiest accommodations.

The four didn't see it as the residence of an acclaimed tea maker, or as the dwelling of a previous Fire Nation general. They saw it as the house of a friend. Its white walls were well washed, the floors worn and smooth. A collection of tables outlined the walls, and the outside collection of seating grew with each warm month.  
Team Avatar, as they had taken to being called, entered the tea shop, ignoring the temporary silence as the Avatar sat down in a seat. After the first year of frequenting this shop, most people had begun to view him as a normal teenager, albeit a teenager with power enough to shape the world.

"I wonder when Iroh's getting back," Toph muttered, putting her feet on the table. She crossed her arms, not seeing the looks she was getting by several of the upper class consumers from across the aisle.

Katara raised her hand to wave at a young waiter, indicating four drinks. "He said he would come back once he convinced Zuko to take a break. However long that takes…"

"Ah, once Zuko comes, it'll be like old times. The four of us, running from him…" Sokka said, leaning back against the wall. The tea arrived, and he took a deep sip, smiling in memory.

"I thought it'd be more like new times, the five of us hanging out. Unless you want to be running…" a slightly raspy voice came from the doorway. Sokka looked up and smiled.

"Speak of the Firelord. Hey, Zuko. How've you been?" Sokka said, staying seated as Aang and Katara went to greet him. Toph turned slightly.

Aang smiled. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. Uncle thinks I need a break, and I agree. I've left Corin in charge, my most trusted general. So, how have you all been?" he answered, sitting down. Dressed in normal clothing, his shaggy hair down and around his face and scar, no one seemed to notice the Firelord in their midst. Iroh walked in after him, heading to the kitchens.

"We've been okay. Traveling a lot, you know how it is with the Avatar," Katara said, putting her arm on Aang's shoulder.

"Enough with the small talk. We all know how life is boring at the palace, and life is boring with the Avatar. Come on, I found a really cool sea shell," Sokka said, putting a hand on Aang and Zuko's shoulders, pulling them away from the table. Toph laughed.

"Oh, because sea shells are such an interesting development." She worked her way to join the boys. "I've finally managed to get my actor's autograph!" she said, referring to a tall, husky boy that portrayed her in a play two years ago.

Team Avatar laughed at this, and walked upstairs.

* * *

Fight. Move. Breathe.

The words of a warrior.

A silken green robe billowed in the wind as the figure inside of it held her pose. A yellow crown-like ornament over brown short hair; white powder covering her made-up face. In her hands were two golden fans, gleaming in the moonlight. She stood still, one leg in front of the other, poised as if expecting battle.

Her gaze, silently appraising, observing her enemy, shifted without blinking.

If an enemy had been there, nothing could have held the girl back. As it were, in place of an enemy was a large egg, a sea-green color. She appraised it cautiously. It was just…wrong. It didn't belong here, a foreign object settled on Kyoshi. If only she had some way to prove it…

"Suki, what are you doing?" a girl asked, dressed in a similar get-up, her long hair braided down her back.

Suki ignored her and watched the egg. Maybe it would react to a voice…

Nothing. It was just…there.

"Suki? Earth to Suki. You there?" the other girl asked, looking skeptically at her friend.

Suki leaned back, taking a deep breath of the night air. "Yeah, I'm here, Ty Lee. But I'm not sure why that thing is."

Ty Lee looked it, standing at the same distance from it as her friend was. "It's an egg."

The first girl groaned in frustration. "I know it's an egg! But what is it? What kind of egg?"

Ty Lee shrugged. "Maybe it's an Unagi egg? Don't snakes lay eggs? I bet sea serpents do too!"

Suki raised her eyebrows. "If it's so normal, why don't you go any closer?"

"It…it just doesn't feel right. I don't know why. I'm scared to touch it," Ty Lee admitted, looking down.

Suki nodded. "Me, too…but I have to face my fears." Slowly, she took a step forward, the vegetation crackling under her weight. She crouched down, taking another step. And another. She was almost upon it. Hesitating only momentarily, she poked the egg with one of her open fans.

The egg quivered at the touch, then was still once more.

Suki inspected the egg again. Most of it was sea green, but along it also ran dark purple stripes. That wasn't normal for an egg. Unless it wasn't an egg. Unless it just needed interaction before it exploded…

"Ty Lee, back up!" Suki shouted, running backward, her eyes locked on the egg, if indeed it was an egg. She grabbed her friend and pulled her along, past several trees. Panting only slightly, she leaned against one of the trees, peering out from behind it to watch the egg.

It hadn't changed.

"What was that for?" Ty Lee asked, pouting.

"We don't know what it is. For all we know, it could be a bomb of some sort," Suki responded, eyeing the still egg with unmasked contempt.

"Maybe it just makes a really big omelet?"

The leader of the Kyoshi warriors rolled her eyes. "As if." After a few more minutes of the egg staying still, she left her hiding place, Ty Lee behind her, and approached the egg again. "What can it be?"

* * *

A teenager walked down the white walls of a long hallway. Her dark hair was loose, the candles that lit the building reflecting off of it, giving it a glossy sheen. A long red dress adorned her, the only accessory being a diamond necklace tight around her neck.

Nodding to a guard at the end of the hallway, she waited as he opened the door, letting her into a small room. Following, he locked the door behind them. The man, dressed in a plain white robe, flexed his hand, creating a small hole in the wall opposite the door, and then stepped back.

As soon as the hole opened, a burst of fire shot through. The girl ignored it, and the flame let out after a few minutes. Without expression, the girl spoke. "Was there a point to that little show?"

A rich voice of a woman came from the hole. "Well, if it isn't the traitor herself. Little girls shouldn't play with fire, Mai."

Mai's expression stayed the same, if not for a small yawn on her part. "Speak for yourself. I'm sixteen; you're the one that's locked up."

"Be quiet, you little wretch! If it wasn't for your leaving my cause, I would have won with no problems! No, you had to side with Zu-Zu. Everyone does." The voice was full of malice and scorn.

"Azula, you went crazy. Are you any better?" Mai asked, her face warming in concern.

"Ha! Now you pretend you actually care! My coward of a brother doesn't even dare to see me! What makes you so special?"

"Nothing," she responded, rolling her eyes. "I just missed my friend. I wish she'd miss me too."

"Friend? I was never your friend, you cretin. I have no friends," Azula said, spitting out the words.

"You're right. You're alone." Mai nodded at the guard, who made the hole in the wall disappear. They walked out of the room.

"Is she any better?" the girl asked, scrunching her eyebrows.

The guard shook his head. Sighing, Mai walked away.

* * *

"Zuko! Your Royal Highness! Wake up!"

Zuko rubbed his eyes and turned over, nearly falling off of the small bed. It was soft, but not nearly at the degree of his bed at his palace…he groaned and shut his eyes again.

"Firelord! Scar! This is your friendly wake-up call! Up and adams!"

There was that voice again. Along with what sounded like a pan being hit. Zuko ignored the sound. He was trying to sleep in for once…

The door to his room opened, and the covers were yanked off of him. He shot up, glaring at Sokka, who was holding a large pan. "What was that for?"

"Well, I tried the friendly wake-up call. So then it was time for the not-so-friendly wake-up call. You got to stay with the times!" he said, smirking as he left the room.

Zuko groaned once more and put his pillow over his face.

"Katara?" a soft voice said from the doorway. "Katara, are you awake?"

"Mmm-hmmm," was the answer. The door opened. Opening her eyes, Katara saw Toph come in.

"Katara, I…I found this on my nightstand," she said, holding up an overlarge egg, a dark grey color with brown dots and a few pink circles. "I normally don't feel at it…but, I don't know…something was on it." Katara rubbed her eyes and

frowned.

"What is it?"

"Do you think I'd be asking you if I had an idea?" the blind girl asked, rubbing her feet on the ground. The entire complex of the _Jasmine Dragon _was stone, the benefits of living in the Earth Nation's capitol.

Katara stretched, and sat up. "It looks like an egg."

"I gathered that much from feeling it. Please tell me this isn't Sokka's form of a joke…"

Looking around her room, Katara noticed a light blue egg on her nightstand, complete with purple waves lining around it. "Wait, I've got one too…" She reached and picked it up. It was large and warm, as if it had just lain out in the sun.

"Wake-up call! Katara, Toph, wakey-wakey, rise and shiney…oh, you're already up," Sokka said, appearing in the doorway. "You've got an egg thing too?"

Katara put the egg on her bed. "You mean this isn't yours?"

"No. Mine is dark blue, with little triangles. I thought it was for the ultimate omelet," Sokka said, looking at Katara and Toph's eggs. "Do you think…?"

"Hey, Sokka, why is there an egg in my room?" Zuko asked, rushing forward with a plain red egg. "If this is your idea of a joke…"

"Stop blaming me already! I have no idea what those eggs are for!" Sokka said, crossing his arms around his pot.

Zuko entered the room. "So you all have eggs too? I wonder if…"

"Can someone tell me why I have a large egg? Not that it isn't cool, but…" Aang said, walking in, holding a light blue egg the same size as the others. "Why are you all staring at me like that?"

"So we all have overlarge eggs. Interesting," Toph said, sitting down on Katara's bed. "And they aren't Sokka's. Even more interesting."

"Hey!"

Katara looked at her own egg. "Maybe Iroh would know how they got here, and what they're for…" she said, grabbing hers. She dropped it back on the bed. "It just moved!"

"Sister, that is what happens when you pick something up."

"No, Sokka, I mean it just wriggled."

Zuko looked at his. "I'm going to ask Uncle." He led the others down to the kitchen, where the day had started hours earlier. Iroh was looking at a newspaper, sipping tea. He looked up when the five of them came in.

"Up so soon? What is it?" he asked calmly. Toph held out her egg.

"Each of us found one of these in our rooms. Any ideas?" she asked. Aang, Zuko, Sokka, and Katara each held out their egg, Sokka having grabbed his before rushing downstairs.

Iroh leaned forward, his eyes widening. "Those aren't for omelets. Those are Digieggs."

"Digieggs?" Aang asked, saying the unfamiliar word. "What're they? I've never heard of them."

Iroh took Toph's egg and looked at it. Cryptically, he said, "They're not from here."

"We realized that. Where are they from? I've never seen them, and we've seen most of the world," Katara said, frowning.

"They're from far away. I have a feeling that something's coming. It'd do well if you all were prepared. Don't worry about them for now. It won't help you learn anything."

Giving the egg back, he took another sip of tea. Zuko looked at his egg.

"…that makes perfect sense…not."

* * *

Suki sat down in the grass, facing the egg. Ty Lee had given up hours ago, going back to bed without a second glance. But Suki couldn't fall asleep; she couldn't leave this puzzle unsolved.

"What are you?" she asked once again, before sighing. This was getting nowhere. It was a giant egg. Maybe its parent would return soon, and she could leave it in peace.

What if the parent wasn't friendly? If it was an Unagi egg, she didn't think it'd be too happy seeing its precious egg by a stranger. And despite the danger the Unagi presented, they were creatures, just like the Elephant Coy. It wasn't in her power to destroy it without giving it a chance.

She blinked. The sun was coming up. It was early morning now, her night spent up watching the peaceful egg. Groaning, she got up and grabbed it, fully determined to show it who was boss. To her surprise, the egg was warm, and it gave a slight tremor in her grasp.

It was as if the egg…liked to be held…

Suki shook her head, and carried the egg through the trees, heading back for town and her home. It was an egg. If it didn't behave, she'd serve it up as breakfast.

* * *

Mai woke up to soft morning light. She smiled gently. Then frowned. Next to her, on the ground a few feet away, was an egg. A soft pink egg, with orange rectangles…

Why was there an egg in her room?

* * *

A/N: Chapter 2 (The Beginning Arc) will introduce the members of the Digimon cast, in the 'real' world, as they...well, what do you think has to happen to make this a true crossover?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'm sorry. I promised myself I'd upload something on this Saturday. It's currently almost one in the morning on Sunday. Oops. In my defense, I got talking to a fellow resident in my hall, and I almost forgot about doing this...

So. I loved writing this. Of course, I've changed a lot since the original draft, nearly two years ago, but I still love this one. Here, we introduce the Digimon 01 cast (well, the humans, at least).

Random thing before I actually let you read what you came here for: if any of you like to wander Deviant Art, go there and look up the profile Eighthchild. That's me. If you don't mind a few minor spoilers, I've posted some artwork pertaining to this story. None of it is good, but, then again, I'm not an artist. I also favorited some drawings that deal with a very similar concept as what I'm working with, by a stranger on the website, that are infinitely better than anything I could produce...

* * *

"Now, press the brake so you can change gear…" a tired man said from the right of a teenage boy, whose spiky brown hair nearly hit the top of the car. The boy frowned and pressed a pedal, then proceeded to try to pull the shift, to no avail. He frowned.

"This car is broken…it isn't working," he said, scratching his chin.

The instructor sighed. "Mr. Kamiya, that is the gas pedal. The _other _pedal is the brake."

"Oh…" The boy smirked. "I knew that." Ignoring his instructor's exhausted look, he put his foot on the brake pedal and shifted the handle. It moved willingly to _D_. "Now what?"

The instructor stifled a groan. "Now, release the brake gently, and put your foot on the gas. Press down slightly…slightly!" He gripped the side door as the car shot forward.

The boy pulled his goggles down from a blue headband, taking his eyes off the parking lot in front of him to see how he looked in the mirror. The instructor nearly had a heart attack there and then. "So, fast food, right? What'll you want, a shake with fries?" he grinned, tapping his fingers on the wheel.

"Taichi, we aren't leaving the parking lot today. Just go in a circle a few times, and…_don't hit that light post!_"

Half an hour later, and more gas wasted than should have due to the incessant shooting forward and braking, Tai left the car and began walking home, his lesson done for the day. He silently hummed to himself, a proud smile on his face, the blue of his shirt fading in and out as he passed under green trees in the park.

"Driving, then a girlfriend, then…who knows! This is the life!" he shouted to the sky, practically jumping in excitement. He hit his hand above him, elated.

Then he fell silent. _What had that been?_ Tai looked around, slowing to a halt. Nobody was around him, only a few pigeons chewing on dirty wads of gum. They couldn't have created that fire…

He was imagining things. It was what came of getting older. He must have looked up, seen the sun, and thought it was fire…but that wasn't right. It was cloudy today. Really cloudy. Dark-and-stormy cloudy. Had the sun opened up to a patch of blue right when he had raised his fist?

That wasn't right, either. It was past five; the sun was starting to set, had been setting for a couple of hours. It wouldn't have been straight above him. The fire had shot, seemingly out of his raised fist, toward the dark clouds. He had felt the heat it had emitted. But that didn't make sense. He couldn't create fire…

Cautiously, he fist-pumped again. Nothing. Chuckling slightly as a pigeon glanced at him, Tai started walking again. _Great. Now his hand, or pigeons, was emitting fire…not the strangest thing he had ever seen, given the events of a few years ago…_

Ignoring the feeling of unease growing inside of his stomach, Taichi Yagami continued on his way home, keeping his arms, and head, down toward the ground, trying to think of nothing more than the soccer game he would be able to watch that night.

* * *

"…and if I fail this class, then I'll fail high school, and I won't be able to go to college, or get a job, or have a life, or…or anything!" a lanky blue-haired boy was muttering to himself as he entered a complex kitchen, grasping a piece of standard paper. It was starting to crinkle from his tight grasp.

"Calm down, Joe, this isn't the end of the world. Nope, just the end of my life…the world has nothing to do with it…for once…" he muttered, looking at the paper as if hoping it would change if he stared it down. He moaned and dropped the paper on a counter, grabbing at his head. "Why didn't I study for that test? I mean, I did study, but why didn't I study more!"

Joe took a deep breath, fighting down growing hysteria. "This is nothing. Absolutely nothing. One test, only a hundred points, not the end of my life. Of course it's not," he muttered, chuckling nervously. "Just…just prepare something to eat. You'll feel better…that's it. If in shock, eat." Knowing that hysteria over a test didn't actually count as 'shock,' Jyou Kido grabbed a glass out of a cabinet, wiping it down with a washcloth.

Momentarily ignoring—turning away from as if it didn't exist—the paper, Joe turned on the faucet to the stainless steel sink, and filled the glass with water. Sighing, breathing a little slower, he took a gulp.

He spit it out almost instantly. The water was too hot, not boiling, not nearly, but warmer than a cool drink of water should be. He groaned. "Even my faucet hates me." He put his head down, one hand holding his glass, the other rubbing his forehead. "I'm not getting anywhere, am I?"

Then, he felt something change. Imperceptibly, at first. But then realization struck him. The glass of water. It felt…cool. Cold, even. Joe looked at the cup. It looked the same. Wait…was that frost on the edges? Quickly, he set the cup down. The water sloshed out of the glass and toward the test. Joe cried out in panic, and reached a hand out.

However, the water never reached the test. In mid-flight, it froze. Literally. The droplets of water froze in midair and dropped to the counter, millimeters from the paper. Joe frowned, eyeing the water suspiciously.

The water had just turned into ice. There had been no breeze, no chemicals, nothing to help out in the phase change. That didn't work, scientifically, logically, didn't make sense.

Of course, a lot of things don't make sense. Evolution, the missing link, for one. The idea of digital monsters existing in an alternate reality, for another.

But this one…this made even less sense. If that were possible. "Great, I'm going crazy. Just what I needed," Joe said, pushing his glasses up before leaning closer to examine the water-turned-ice crystals.

* * *

A tall girl walked forward, down the street. It looked like rain. Not that it was supposed to rain, but she didn't want to get caught out in the rain. That was never a comfortable experience, least of all wearing a pink dress.

She loved that dress, she really did. But the hem had been let down several times since when she had constantly worn it, three years ago, and she had other outfits to wear. She wasn't a cowgirl—she didn't even live in the West! Japan was about as far east as you could go—she had learned that in geography last year. After losing the matching cowgirl hat three years ago, the outfit was just a painful reminder of saying goodbye to a best friend, whom she hadn't seen since.

The only reason she had worn the pink cowgirl dress, complete with brown boots and red gloves, was because she was nostalgic. Summer always made her nostalgic, this summer even more so than usual. She had thought that, if she had worn the dress, let her hair go to its natural light brown shade, if she just found a way to be like before, she'd go back. That didn't make sense; she was fourteen, not eleven, and she had grown up a lot from the innocent little girl she had been.

But, still, she wasn't too grown up to not believe in magic or destiny. To not believe in a hope that it would happen again.

A phone rang in her brown purse, another remnant from three years ago, but the phone was new. Sighing, the girl dug into her bag and pulled out the cell, opening it. "Hi."

"Mimi! So, guess what, he asked me out! He walked up to me at the mall, you know, at that one store, and…" It was one of Mimi Tachikawa's various friends. She had a lot; it wasn't hard to get along with the girl. But she didn't want to hear from this one. She wanted to hear from a specific set of seven others. Along with eight random beings that didn't belong in this world.

The friend was prattling away, growing more and more excited. She didn't seem to even notice the other girl's silence; to say this scenario hadn't happened before would be false. But Mimi wasn't interested in boys or dating at the moment. Three years had passed, and it felt like a lifetime.

"…and we're going to the movies tonight, and to that really nice China place! Isn't this great! Mimi?"

"…oh, sorry. Spaced out for a moment. Yeah, that's wonderful! Glad to hear it!" Mimi said, smiling. Whether the smile was sincere or false, however, she couldn't tell. "Hey, I'll talk to you later, okay?" She hung up her phone and threw it in her bag.

Maybe she was just being silly, holding onto that hope. She knew that Joe had given up; he wouldn't admit it, but he had gone back to studying for the future, trying not to dwell on the past. Sora, too…she had tried to wait, but every day, the auburn grew more mature and less prone to childish wishes. Mimi barely ever saw her friends, her true friends, outside of school. If only it were different…

Why couldn't they go back? Mimi groaned, now angry. It wasn't fair. To be cut off from that terrifying place…from all the wonderful sights…it just wasn't fair! Mimi uncrossed her arms and threw them to her side with as much ferocity as she could muster. When she got home, she'd attack her toy animal, but until then, pretending to be visibly angry would help…

She caught herself as she almost tripped, just managing to stay erect and regain her balance. Glaring at the sidewalk, she looked behind her. A bump had appeared in the sidewalk. Sending a death stare at the imperfection in the cement, she pointed at it, wanting to scream, to find a way to destroy that lump; if Palmon were here, it would have already been demolished! What right did it have in disturbing her brooding thoughts? Angry with the world, she punched at the stone wall next to her.

However, her irate temper disappeared as soon as her hand hit the hard wall. It should have hurt. And it did throb. But...no. Trick of the light, maybe? Optical illusion? She loved those ideas of mirages. But this…she felt connected with it. There hadn't been a dent there before, had there? Confused, Mimi raised brought her gloved hand off of the hard surface.

Where it had hit the wall, there was now a small hole that hadn't been there before. But that was pure stone...she wasn't that strong...Mimi shoved her hand down and looked around. Humming to herself, she started to skip home as the rain began to sprinkle down. Something was happening; she was sure of it. Maybe it was time for a meeting…

* * *

Sora Takenouchi sighed, running her fingers through her auburn hair. Work was boring; that was to be expected. But working for her mother for a reduced pay at the age of fifteen—that was just plain torture.

It wasn't that Sora wasn't a grateful teenager. She loved her mother, her family, her life. She had the Crest of Love for a reason, as she would remind herself when the going got tough. But, still, there were better things to be doing with her time. Things not involving stacking vases and pruning flowers.

The girl straightened her teal apron and grabbed a stack of seed packets, groaned, and started to put them on a shelf in a neat little row. This wasn't her life, not with a part-time job downstairs from her bedroom, no, her life was soccer, tennis, sports in general.

She had had a different life. But she wasn't going to talk about that anytime soon.

The artificial lights overhead bore down on her, and she looked out the window at the grey sky. If only it would rain. Then she could close shop; with her mother out of town, she let Sora close shop if the weather turned nasty. No one would go to buy flowers if it started pouring. Of course, Sora would have preferred freedom in the sunlight, but that wasn't going to happen today of all days.

It wasn't supposed to rain. It was never supposed to rain, though. The newscaster had forecasted a sunny day since last Tuesday; however, the sun wasn't visible in the darkening sky. Later, the weather reporter had suggested clouds with no possibility of precipitation.

Apparently, the weather was dead set on proving the forecaster wrong.

Stumbling away from her stacking, the girl decided to water/drown the plants one more time. Always a good idea to keep fresh looking merchandise, right? Maybe she'd get a raise…she dourly thought as she maneuvered around the stacks of flowers and gardening utensils.

She must have been too lost in thought, for her arm hit over a stack of newly-budded daisies. Tripping on the mess, without any time to correct herself, she started to fall. A gust of wind picked up in the room as she breathed out, moments away from hitting the floor.

She stopped in midair, her face a foot from hitting the floor.

"What the…" She wasn't exactly stopped. Her eyebrows knit together as her face scrunched, trying to make sense of this development. She had tripped, fallen, was now suspended in midair—as if the wind were trying to push her back up. Letting out a gasp of confusion, she reached her hands forward...

And fell back down to the ground, managing to catch herself. Picking herself up, she took a deep breath, feeling the current rush down her throat. The rain had started up, slightly, but the sky looked as if it would promise more. Shaking her head, Sora turned the Open sign to Closed, and ran up to her room. Something just happened. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, but she would figure it out.

* * *

A group of giggling girls (try saying that three times fast) quickly approached, shoving each other forward across the hot sidewalk. A boy tried to ignore him as they pursued onward, his mind on other matters. Matters not concerning fan girls.

It was all his little brother's fault, for the fan girls and the autographs and the media. Well, not so much media as school newspapers. TK had liked his music, and had suggested to perform at a concert in the community center with his band—they only met a few times each month, and none of them really knew each other outside of their meetings, but they were the Teenage Wolves, and he couldn't help that their popularity had spread with each performance.

As it was, Yamato Ishida wasn't thinking about the girls following him, or his band, or even his brother. He was thinking about the rain.

It had been raining steadily for the last five minutes, although the forecast hadn't suggested rain in any way. It had predicted cloudy skies, sure, but no precipitation. Not that the weather man wasn't usually wrong, but…the clouds were moving fast across the sky. Faster than they should have. Matt wasn't worried about the clouds, though, or the wrong forecast. He was worried about getting wet.

Or, rather, the lack of getting wet. Because, for the last five minutes of the steady drizzle, wearing only a black T-shirt and jeans that should have been soaked through in minutes, Matt Ishida hadn't felt a drop of rain hit his body.

The fan girls behind him were soaked, were splashing in puddles for fun. Wet hair clung to faces. Around him, rain was pouring. But right before it hit him, it seemed to bounce away, at some invisible barrier. Not that Matt didn't mind being dry. He was just perplexed.

Maybe he was going crazy. Celebrities seemed to do that a lot. Not that he was a celebrity, but, according to that stalker organization, being the singer/bassist for a teenage band made him enough. That was it—the instant success of his band was making his head spin.

The blond sighed. Here he was, fifteen, worrying about impossible feats and growing popularity. Isn't that what most kids wanted to achieve? He usually didn't worry about impossible feats…him and seven of his friends had basically defined the impossible three summers ago. But this…this was just weird, and he knew weird. And he didn't know this.

"Yama!" one of the girls called, ducking under a tree. "Wait up! Can you dedicate a song to me? I want a CD!"

Matt continued walking, ignoring them. If he wasn't part of a band, they wouldn't even look at him like that. He was tall, but not as tall as some. His blond hair was getting longer, but at the moment was at that awkward phase where it wasn't short or long. He wasn't great at sports…average. But being in a band seemed to change the course of the world to those girls…it made him scoff.

One of the girls, a spiky-haired brunette, ran forward, rain splattering down her bangs. She was one of the most obsessed Matt had ever met. She gave the word _stalking _a whole new definition. "Mattie, meet me here tonight at seven, okay? Just you and me…it'll be perfect, just come and see." She reached forward and grabbed his arm in an intimate way.

Matt pulled back, away from her. Not to be ignored, she grabbed his midriff, hugging tightly. The girls behind her giggled and cursed at their friend's success.

Groaning, Matt pulled away and turned around. "Can you stop grabbing me? I'm not interested…when will you realize what that means?!" He threw his hands in the air and sucked in breath, prepared to continue on his rampage…and stopped as the girl looked at him…through a small film of water.

Raindrops were collecting, forming a visible wall between him and the girl. That was impossible. Rain didn't collect midair like that…Matt cocked his head, frowning, and reached out to touch it, the girl already forgotten under the light of this new development.

As soon as his finger touched the sheet of water, it dropped to the ground with a splat. Suddenly, rain started bombarding him, soaking him. Matt gasped as the cold settled in, something he hadn't noticed being dry. Shivering, he turned around, away from the girl, and ran down the sidewalk, away from the posse, away from that street…away from what he had just done.

It was impossible, after all.

* * *

It had _moved_. He had seen it, watched it…_caused it_. Not intentionally, of course. What use would he have of moving a sidewalk? But, nevertheless, after tripping on a root that rose under the cement, he had landed on all fours, his hands scratching upon impact…and the sidewalk now had two dents where his hands had landed.

The redhead stood up quickly, ignoring the rain that was dripping through the leaves above. Those dents. It was impossible, of course. At any other moment, the boy might have had a theory, might have tried to figure it out.

As it was, he didn't have time to wonder about the strength of sidewalk cement against bare hands and gravity. He needed to get to his house, to his laptop—his mother had said it would be a nice day, that it wouldn't rain, that he wouldn't need his computer. How wrong she was on all accounts.

Rushing past people trying to stay dry from the storm that had come in the last hour, Koushiro Izumi didn't seem to notice the slight dent his shoes were making every time he stepped. He did notice, of course; he had been eyeing everyone else to see if they were having similar problems with the cement. He appeared to be the only one that was noticing anything, doing anything. Everyone else was just trying to stay dry, not causing dents in the sidewalk beneath them.

Someone would trip if he wasn't careful. But he didn't have time to be careful. He had to get to his laptop.

Earlier that day, Izzy had said a word he hadn't said in years—_prodigious_.

Prodigious, as the definition goes, can mean sizable, in a great amount. It could mean marvelous, very impressive, amazing. It was the opposite of _average_. That wouldn't be fun to say, _average_. Luckily, Izzy had plenty to be amazed at.

That word had one more meaning. It meant that a small, watch-like digital device clipped onto his jeans pocket had emitted a high humming sound and a flash of light earlier that day.

* * *

**"**But, Mom, I'm old enough to take care of myself!"

A brunette woman looked sternly at a blond boy. "Honey, you're only eleven. You can't go outside right now. It's raining, you could get lost, or slip in a puddle, or…"

She left the messy bedroom, closing the door behind her. The boy glared at the door for a moment, before sighing and taking a waterproof hat off of his head. His blond hair stuck up at random angles.

"I've done more dangerous stuff than go to the store in a rainstorm," he muttered to himself, lying down on his bed, not bothering to correct the sheets that were falling off. Around the room, items were strewn all over: action figures, mostly; an expensive-looking guitar; various colors and designs of hats. A notebook or two lay open, their pages showing the illustrations of what appeared to be strange creatures—an orange pig with wings, an angel, a lion standing erect. The drawings weren't prize worthy, TK would admit, but they were all he could do by himself.

Now, if only he could figure out what to do with his time that didn't involve dying of boredom.

The boy sat up and grabbed a wired phone from his bedside table. Dialing a number from memory, he waited as the tone was sent out. After a few rings, someone answered.

"Ishida, Yamato. What is it?" came a voice TK new all too well. He smiled.

"I'd like a four-cheese pizza, stuffed crust, hold the mozzarella," the young blond said in as serious a voice as he could muster.

Takeru Takaishi could practically hear his brother smile on the other end of the line. "TK. Anything going on? This had better be good; you do realize it's storming outside?"

"Why are you outside, then?"

"Hey, I've got to get home somehow. If my cell phone dies from water exposure, you owe me new one."

TK laughed. "Sure, sure. As soon as you get me that pizza. Nothing's happening; that's the problem. I'm bored, and Mom won't let me go outside to do anything. What's up with you?"

Matt's voice grew quiet, and TK could hear him draw a breath. "Um…this is going to sound crazy, but…something's going on. Something strange. You sure nothing weird has happened with you?"

TK grew genuinely serious, and stood up. He was taller than he had been three years ago, only a head shorter than his brother. "Well, I did fly earlier."

"I'm being serious here, you know?" came his brother's stern reply. TK grinned to himself.

"So am I. I…well, it wasn't flying, not really. More like jumping really high, in the alley next to our apartment. You know, basketball, trying out a slam dunk…but either I'm the world's best jumper, or something really unnatural happened, because I found myself somehow standing on the rim. Don't even ask how I got down from there. I came inside to grab my jacket, since it looked nasty outside, but now I can't go back outside to test it again."

"You're kidding, right?" Matt waited a moment before continuing. "That's…something similar happened to me. I was trying to get away from some girls, and I wasn't getting wet at all, and then I think I created this water wall between me and my chief stalker."

The younger blond laughed nervously. "That's a statement I never thought I'd ever hear. Um…do you know if anyone else has done something strange?"

"I dunno, bro. I'm going to call Tai and see what he's up to," Matt said in reply. It was a tacit agreement that, if something off happened, they would contact Tai, and then Izzy. "Maybe it's just because we're related, but I think it's more than that…"

"Me too. Something's about to happen." TK hung up his phone, and sat down again. He hadn't flown, but he wasn't about to toss out that possibility.

Something was about to happen. He could just feel it.

* * *

A young girl sat on a balcony, staring at the town stretched out below her. It was raining; every now and then, a few drops managed to evade the cement several feet above her head and landed on her, cold and wet and dismal. She shivered as a particular gust brought drip after drip down on her head.

Even if she wanted to go back inside, away from the cold, she couldn't. Her brother had claimed their room, talking animatedly on the phone to a friend. He seemed serious-never a good sign, especially since today had been his first driving practice. He had been looking forward to it all week, had practically sprinted out of the house when he realized it was time to go. But when he had returned, he had moved slowly, cautiously...he had kept looking around, as if waiting for something to magically appear.

And he wouldn't tell his sister what was going on. He had just shrugged his shoulders when she had asked how the drive went. Instead of turning on the television to watch a soccer game that she knew he had been waiting to see, he had sat down on the lower bunk of their two beds, crossed his arms, and stared at the wall, deep in thought.

That wasn't like Tai. Not at all.

So, when the phone rang and forced him out of his pondering, Kari had excused herself. Onto the balcony. Because it wasn't supposed to rain. She must have been in as deep a trance as Tai, because she hadn't noticed the precipitation pouring, pounding the walls. Or maybe she had noticed, and had just wanted to be outside, where memories still abounded.

But that decision had been made, and she was outside, and it was cold. Hikari Yagami shivered again, her hands stretched outright, close to her chest, palms up. She winced as more rain came flying at her; she closed her eyes until the gust stopped, then peeked at her hands.

Good. It was still there. She had been afraid the water would destroy it, make it cease to exist. It was heat, and it was comforting, even if it shouldn't exist. Why shouldn't it exist? It had every right to be there. It wasn't harming anything. So long as she didn't drop it, everything would be fine. And she knew that she wouldn't drop it.

Kari blew on it a little, wishing it to get bigger. And, flickering a little, the fire in her palms grew in size, until it was as big as her fist. She smiled slightly and nodded at it in appreciation. Its light reflected off of her necklace, a golden pendant with a pink eight-point flower, one of several copies of the original. The petals seemed to move with the changing fire, as if responding to the wind and heat.

The sliding door opened behind her; she looked up as her older brother stepped onto the balcony. "Kari, you can come inside now. Matt and TK are going crazy..." Tai stopped in mid-sentence, staring at his younger sister. Or, more specifically, at the flame she was holding.

"Maybe Matt and TK are the sane ones," she responded, one corner of her mouth lifting into a half-smile. "Don't deny it; you did something earlier, too."

"...how did you do that? How did you _know_ that?" His eyes were still on the dancing flame.

"You were too serious when you came home. And that," Kari said, motioning at the house with her head," is Izzy." A moment later, the phone rang.

Tai shook his head and ran inside to grab the phone. "Yagami residence...Izzy? Yeah, it's Tai...yeah..." He stared outside as he talked, every now and then glancing at his younger sister. His expression changed from confusion, to bewilderment, to barely contained excitement. "Seriously? When? Yeah, we'll be there in a bit." He shut off the phone and ran onto the balcony once again.

"Izzy...he said...a message..." he stuttered, a crazy grin alighting his face. "We're meeting in the park in five minutes. Come on!" Once again, he ran back into the dry building.

Kari stood up slowly, staring at her flame. She let her arms fall to her sides; the fire disappeared, leaving the space in front of her slightly warm, until the warmth too vanished with a new gust of wind.

After three years, it was time.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: To make up for last upload's near lateness, this one is posted at 12:10 in the morning of Saturday. There!

Okay, honestly, I was just dying to post something.

This is a very laid-back chapter...nothing especially noteworthy happens, just more group-gathering. I promise, things will pick up a bit next chapter, and especially in Chapter 5.

Oh, I suppose this is a good time to mention something important to the fandoms: pairings. There are pairings hinted in this, and I might act on them later, but they won't be central. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to use canon pairings from Avatar (so, Katara/Aang, Zuko/Mai, Sokka/Suki) even if Korra doesn't maintain them. As for Digimon, I'm even more hesitant, so I haven't decided on anything at the moment. This is an adventure/friendship, not a romance. Keep that in mind, please!

Thanks for reading, and leave a review if you feel so inspired! I have a lot planned, but if you have any ideas for interactions between characters, I'd love to hear them!

* * *

Zuko sat under a tree in a courtyard of Ba Sing Se, sipping a cold drink. He wasn't sure what was in it, but it had a refreshing fruity flavor that he was sure his uncle would enjoy. Next to him, Sokka was busy conversing.

"So. Dark blue. Triangles. I respect your coloring…reminds me of the water tribe, actually," he was saying, looking pointedly at his Digiegg. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"Sokka, is there a reason why you're talking to an egg?"

The nonbender grimaced as if the answer were painfully obvious. "Well, it's obviously from…" He leaned closer to Zuko, his eyes widening conspiringly. "…up there." He slowly pointed a finger upward.

The Firelord frowned in confusion. "From the cherry tree?" he said, squinting as he looked up at the dark branches.

"No! From _there_!" Sokka said, pointing at the blue sky overhead.

"…are you saying it's from an Airbender?"

Sokka looked irately at his friend. "Zuko, stop talking, please." He put the egg in his bag, closing it securely. "Good, now it can't hear us."

"Sokka, eggs don't have ears."

"How are you to know? If it's from the stars, it could have eyes and be watching us, for all we know!" He waved his arms around energetically.

Zuko looked dubiously from the bag to Sokka. "From the stars? Uncle said it was from another world…"

"Another world, as in another planet! _From an alien species, looking to take over the Four Nations and turn us into mindless zombies_!" Sokka got up and started walking in a limping manner, his hands in front of him.

"…I don't think that's quite what he meant…" Deciding to ignore Sokka's protests, Zuko looked around. Ba Sing Se was peaceful, of course…in the two years he'd been at rule, only minor skirmishes of the privileged nobility had besieged his peace attempts. Most of those were cleared up now—the army remained in half force, practicing for the improbability that something would come up to threaten their nation.

It wasn't hard, ruling in this day and age. With the Avatar back, people felt they had a spokesperson again, someone to defend their rights. Indeed, Aang did just that. Even without any wars to fight in, he was constantly busy, fighting the lowest of each nation. Some people didn't like having the Avatar…interfering in their business, they said. Some didn't like him being friendly with the Firelord…not stating his friends in the Water and Earth nation as counting as well. But most enjoyed the steady ruling and the new peace.

"…and then, after they gut you, you'll turn into one of them, and they'll take over the world, and the only reminder of our life will be this boomerang, kept for sentimental value as belonging to the fearless leader who fought so valiantly against the alien zombie saber-tooth moose-lions!"

Losing his train of thought, Zuko frowned at his friend. "Um, why are they moose-lions? Would another world even have those?"

Sokka turned red. "Um…yeah, bad experience with a moose-bear a few years ago. Anyway, we can ask once they land here…"

"There aren't any aliens! He meant another world, as in separate from our universe!"

"Did he tell you that?" Sokka said defensively. Before Zuko could reply, he continued. "I thought so! You're keeping secrets! That's not fair! Spit it, or feel my wrath!" A few people walking by looked curiously at his outburst.

Zuko's face scrunched up. "…did you get any sleep last night?"

"Er…well, this egg wouldn't let me sleep! It was part of their mind control…see, it's working already!"

Sighing, the young fire bender leaned against his chair, resolving to never be alone with Sokka again.

* * *

Toph yawned. She'd never had a thing for teaching. Sure, she helped Aang learn the element, and she was one of the best Earthbenders around. Not that people on the street admitted a blind girl could beat them any day. But still, she was the best person for the job.

However, teaching Earthbending to the Avatar was just a little more fulfilling than attempting to teach Metal bending to the king of the Earth Nation.

King Bumi had taken rule reluctantly; for a year, he evaded becoming more than the ruler of Omashu, stating that there was someone better than he for the job. After the year was up, and this other person not yet found, Aang had cornered the ancient man, demanding to know who was better than Bumi.

Bumi had laughed; in his crazy yet truthful way, he had told Aang that he himself was now ready to rule. According to Bumi, a year ago he wasn't right for the job—he had his own city to worry about. Now that it was repaired from the Fire Nation's stay in it, he could devote his time on the whole Earth Nation, not just on individual cities. In his logic, he was now the better ruler than he had been when they had first asked him to take on the responsibility.

Thus relenting—and with Aang more than a little confused—Bumi was now ruler of the Earth Nation, and it prospered under him.

According to him, however, he still had a lot to learn. And one of those new lessons included Metal Bending.

Two years had passed, yet Toph Bei Fong remained the only known Metal Bender in the world. Not for lack of trying on her students' parts, of course. Aang had stopped trying the day he started; confident in his ability, believing he had felt the metal for what it was, Earth, he had hit the piece Toph had been leaning against. As Iroh later told him, it was lucky his hand hadn't broken from the impact. However, the swelling that lasted the following week kept him from trying again; he flew away whenever Toph mentioned it.

Bumi was her newest victim/student attempting to master the unique ability to bend the rock in metal. He'd been trying for two weeks; despite the lack of success, he was persistent to not give up.

"The metal is just rock, the metal is just rock, the metal is just rock," he told himself, his new mantra running through him. Toph rolled her eyes. _Keep telling it that, and it'll just hit you for giving it a headache._ Really, teaching was not her thing. Yet she kept on getting new students.

With a 'hah', Bumi lunged forward, hitting the metal. It responded with a sharp clang, and Bumi fell backward, wincing and holding his hand. "…that didn't work quite the right way…"

"You think?" Toph asked, only slightly under her breath. Louder, she said, "Okay. Stop calling it metal. Metal bending is the same as Earthbending, just a little more complex. Imagine all the rock used to make this steel…bend that, not the steel."

Bumi nodded, more to himself than to her. "Bend the rock, not the steel…bend the rock, not the steel…bend the rock, not the steel…" He lunged forward yet again, this time with his other hand.

The resounding clank was barely heard under the king's cursing.

"You know, maybe we should continue this tomorrow…" Toph said, trailing off. Next to her, Bumi nodded.

"Sure." He sat down, grabbing a towel from a rack nearby. "Now, Toph, what's wrong?"

Caught off guard, the girl stuttered. "Wr-wrong? Nothing. Why would you ask?"

"You aren't telling me how I'm not trying hard enough. That's a first for you. So what's going on?"

Toph frowned. "Nothing…not really. Just…well, Iroh keeps mentioning this 'other world' when we showed him these eggs we got…" She explained the situation with the collection of eggs they had found on their bedsides two days beforehand.

Bumi nodded; whether in understanding or just to show he was listening, it was hard to say. Either way, the effect was lost on the blind girl. "I think you should just wait and see what happens."

"Wait…what? But…"

"If it was important for you to know right now, Iroh would have told you. I would trust him and wait patiently. It will make sense soon."

Toph felt the ground. Bumi was standing straight a few feet away from her. "You know what the eggs are for, don't you?"

The king smiled mysteriously. "When you're a member of the White Locus, you learn some things. Just wait. You'll figure the eggs out before too long." With that, he moved away, toward the door. Toph stood still, frowning.

"Adults just can't be straightforward, can they?" she muttered to herself before following Bumi inside.

* * *

"Now, a nice circle…yeah, that's it…then thrust forward…no! Stop, stop!" Katara called out. Aang fell over, using air to bring himself erect once more.

"What did I do wrong?" he questioned, looking at the ground. "I did the circle like you showed me…"

"It was the thrust. You don't just leap forward. You have to shift your weight onto your toes, then fall forward, catching yourself last moment. Like this," the Waterbender responded, demonstrating the proper technique. Aang sighed, kicking a rock along the stream.

"I'm never going to get this!"

Katara smiled patiently. "You will. You just have to practice."

"That's what you said about the last technique, and two minutes after you said it, you had us move on to this one," he complained.

She pursed her lips. "I thought we'd try something new, and go back to that one later…"

"So I have to do that again?! Are you trying to torture me?" Aang plopped down on the ground, putting his head in his hands.

Katara looked sadly down upon him. Kneeling, she put an arm around him. "I'm trying to make you stronger. You have all this potential as the Avatar…we shouldn't put it to waste."

"But what if I don't want to be a master at it? I don't mind just knowing enough…when I'm in the Avatar state, it just comes naturally…" the Avatar said, thinking wistfully of that state of perfection, when he knew bending as much as he knew the back of his own hand. Not that he looked at that body part too much, but flying on Appa did get a little boring…

The Waterbender sighed. "Aang, you can't rely on that. I know, it always comes when you really need it, but…shouldn't you be prepared, just in case?"

Aang sighed and lifted his head up. "I know, I'm just tired. One person can't be expected to learn all of this…Toph is pushing me to master Earthbending; not that I mind, but…it's hard to understand Earth when I'm an Airbender. Then Zuko is trying to teach me lightning…that's not working out too well. And I'm getting worse and worse at Waterbending each day!" He started to stand up again. "I think I'm doing something wrong here."

Katara smiled, trying to look encouraging. "You'll get it. Just be patient—you don't need to cram it all in like you did when we had to fight the Fire Nation. You have the rest of your life to work on it. Just keep practicing; you'll figure it out."

"I hope so…" He looked around. Besides Momo chasing a butterfly a few trees away, he and Katara were alone; the good thing about Ba Sing Se was the size: it wasn't hard to find an unoccupied area to practice at. "Katara, what do you think about the eggs?"

"The Digieggs?" Aang nodded. "I'm not sure. Iroh made them sound…important, somehow. I think we should be careful; Sokka looked in the palace library yesterday, and he couldn't find any books about it."

Aang frowned. This was confusing, even more so because Iroh wouldn't relinquish any information that he obviously knew. "Why can't our lives ever be easy?"

"Maybe when the eggs hatch, something nice will come out," Katara said, smiling at the thought. "Maybe a penguin."

They looked at Aang's sky blue egg, sitting on the grass nearby, skeptically. "Somehow, I don't think that's a penguin egg."

Katara sighed. "Me neither."

* * *

"Firelord, your Uncle requests your presence," a young man said. One of Iroh's employees—he had a number working under him in the Jasmine Dragon, hand chosen, though for what, his nephew could not say.

Zuko nodded tersely. Standing up, he started to walk away from Sokka, who looked sullen. "Sure, go ahead. Leave me to be zombified. Don't say I didn't warn you!"

The employee looked curiously at Sokka. "Um…Iroh wants you to come too."

Sokka jumped up, grabbing his bag, egg inside, and running after Zuko. "Why didn't you mention that sooner?" he asked the employee angrily.

He chose to ignore the question. "Would you happen to know where Misses Katara and Toph, and Avatar Aang, are? They're to meet in the Dragon as well."

Zuko looked to Sokka, who nodded. "Aang and my sister are practicing Waterbending down by the river…um, east side, by that big wall. Toph was helping Bumi—the king—practice Earthbending. I think." The employee nodded in thanks, setting off toward the river. Sokka groaned. "Why do I know more about who's bending where than anyone else?"

"Um…because you're bored?" the Firelord questioned, amused.

"You know what?" Sokka looked at Zuko for a moment. "You're in my good books again." He took the lead, stepping onto a stone path that would lead down the street to the tea shop.

Zuko stopped. "…when did I get _out_ of your 'good books'?" He shook his head before hurrying after the nonBender.

* * *

Iroh brought out a tray of tea and biscuits—he had insisted on serving refreshment as soon as all five teenagers had arrived at the Jasmine Dragon. "Busy day, I assume?"

Sokka sighed, checking his fingernails. "You said it. The walk down to the cherry tree seemed exceptionally long." At this, Katara rolled her eyes.

Iroh chuckled, though more so from his own thoughts than from Sokka's statement. "Someone is here to see you. I let her go on a quick tour of the castle while I got you all here. She should be coming any moment."

Zuko sat up. "Who is it?" He turned to Toph. "You were at the castle, right? Did you recognize anyone?"

If Toph knew how, she would have rolled her eyes. "Maybe one day you'll all realize something. It's hard to recognize people when you can't see in the first place." She sounded calm, however; teasing her friends about their mistaken context was one of her favorite activities, if she was in the mood.

Clearing his throat, Zuko blushed slightly. "Uh…yeah." He turned back to his uncle. "Who is it?" he asked again.

Before Iroh could speak, however, the door to the Dragon opened, and a young woman stepped through. Sokka was the first out of his chair. "Suki!" he exclaimed, grinning broadly.

She smiled warmly back, accepting a hug from him. Without Kyoshi robes or makeup on, she remained alert of her surroundings…the first rule of a good warrior. You couldn't be ambushed if you knew exactly what was going on around you. Dressed in a loose purple robe, she allowed Sokka to sit her between him and Toph.

"Suki, why are you here?" Aang asked, smiling. "Not that I mind or anything…but aren't you in charge of the Kyoshi Warriors?" They had visited Kyoshi many times in the last two years; the elite fighting force located on that island were among the Avatar's greatest allies and friends.

"Yeah, I am. I left Ty Lee and Kama in charge…both are new, but I think they can handle it," she explained, taking a sip of the tea. "I'm here because I sent a messenger hawk to Iroh for advice, and he told me to come here as soon as I could."

Five pairs of eyes looked at the aging man. He put his hands up, admitting defeat. "I would have told you, but I thought to keep it a surprise."

Katara took a bite out of a biscuit. "Suki, what did you need advice about?"

Suki looked at Iroh; he nodded her to continue. "Two days ago…well, it was nighttime, but that's not important…I found this on the island." She pulled, out of a deep red bag, a sea-green egg. Aang, Zuko, Katara, and Sokka all gasped.

Toph looked amused. "I'm assuming she just showed you a new egg, right?"

"How did you figure that out?" Aang asked, looking with confusion at the egg.

"Well, that's the only new thing going on that we all have in common. If it had just been a sky-blue cabbage, I don't think you'd all have been so simultaneous," she explained, clearly not too concerned with the newest egg.

Suki had frowned as soon as they gasped. "You recognize it? Please say it isn't Unagi…"

"No. At least, we're not sure…" Aang said before grabbing Katara's bag. Carefully, he pulled out two eggs, handing Katara hers. Silently, Sokka and Zuko took theirs out was well.

Suki stuttered, looking from egg to egg in confusion. "You…you all have them too." She looked inquisitively at Toph.

The blind girl sensed being watched. Raising her hands, she said, "Hey, I'm not grabbing mine just to add to effect. I'm perfectly comfortable here, and I'm sure it is as well. On my bedstand."

"Then…we all have eggs…why?" the newest arrival looked to Iroh, her forehead furrowing. "You know, don't you?"

"You all assume I know about the eggs," Iroh complained, taking a large draught of his fresh tea.

Katara put her egg on the table, and, passing a cup of tea to Suki, said, "Well, you do. Don't you?"

Iroh grimaced. "Well, yes, but you must wait." He looked around at all of them, all six. "I'm becoming predictable, aren't I? That is not a good thing."

Zuko rolled his eyes, turning to the other teenagers as Iroh went back to the shop's large stone kitchen. "They're called Digieggs. Uncle says they're from another world, but he won't explain any further than that."

"He just keeps telling us to wait," Aang put in, sounding slightly impatient.

Suki nodded, deep in thought. "Maybe that's exactly what we should do, then."

"What do you mean?"

"Sokka, don't you see? If we rush into trying to figure this out, we could very easily miss something," the girl explained. The other five leaned toward her; she had started to whisper, shooting furtive glances at those seated around their small table. "The most important thing about strategy is keeping an eye open. We should apply the same concept to this mystery."

"Wait," Toph interrupted, loudly. She lowered her voice to a mutter. "You want us to ignore this?"

"I want us to follow Iroh's advice. He's never led any of us the wrong way before."

"But…Suki," Katara said, her voice thick. "What if he _wants _us to research into this? Knowing Iroh, that's as likely as anything else. He likes to be the teacher, but he also likes to observe what we do…"

Suki nodded at the other girl. "You've tried researching, haven't you?" Looking down, Katara nodded. "I asked the Kyoshi historian…he had no idea. I doubt you have any, either." Katara and Sokka shook their heads. "Iroh wants us to wait. I think something's going to happen…and the most we can do right now is watch and learn what we can, and prepare for when that time comes. Take the element of surprise away from it."

"You're making it sound like a battle. It's a food item. Chickens lay them," Zuko said, frowning. "Even if this is too big for a chicken."

Suki looked at him. "Everything's a battle. Life is made by trying to win it."

* * *

The next day, the six of them gathered in Iroh's private kitchen for breakfast. It was much smaller than the brewing and baking kitchen located next to the café; consisting of only two granite tables, a few cupboards, and a stove, it was only used by Iroh and, when around, friends and family.

"Up already, I see?" the grey-haired owner said, smiling as he entered the kitchen and set a flame on the stove, a kettle atop the flame on metal bars. His smile faltered slightly when he looked up to see the ensemble staring at him. "I'm not still in my pajamas, am I?" He looked down at himself, then looked up, frowning.

"Uncle." Zuko spoke, his voice steady and calm. "We've decided to follow your advice. We're going to wait." Iroh smiled at his nephew.

"However," Aang added, looking serious, "we're not leaving this kitchen until you tell us why you can't tell us anything more."

"What happened to waiting?" Iroh asked, frowning.

"We are waiting." Katara crossed her arms. "Right here." Beside her, Suki and Sokka nodded, high-fiving under the table.

"When did you decide this? It's not as if you're early risers," the aging man inquired, looking at Sokka and Toph at the last statement.

_"So we're just going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs?" Toph asked, looking at her friends skeptically. "Pretty boring plan, if you ask me."_

_ Suki smiled, her thought fully formed now. "That's exactly what we're going to do. We might have to wait to figure this out, but Iroh knows something, and we'll stay right here until he gives us something useful to go on."_

_ "What happened to waiting and watching? Being a warrior?" Sokka asked, looking amused._

_ "Inquiry and…resisting influence are part of the watching bit."_

"Last night," Toph answered to Iroh, smirking.

"I…" He was spared from answering when a young employee stepped in, her braided hair already becoming undone from the morning shift in the larger kitchen.

"Sir, there's a girl here to see you, Iroh. Says she's from Capital Island, she claims," the serving girl said, looking around curiously at the group of teenagers crowding the private kitchen.

Iroh frowned. "Please send her in, Mathil. No need to be rude." Mathil left, half bowing her way out. A few moments later, she returned with another girl, this one with dark hair, sleek and shiny, her red dress out of place in the Earth kingdom kitchen. Iroh and Zuko both smiled at the new arrival.

"Mai, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" the Firelord exclaimed, jumping up to hug her. Sokka shook his head, mumbling something about the plan backfiring. Suki elbowed him.

"I didn't know myself," the new arrival said, grinning wryly at the ensemble. "Just jumped on the nearest boat and used it to get across. Figured that this would be where all the action was…looks like I was right."

"Action? What action?" Aang asked, scooting over to admit Mai to the table, now seriously groaning under the spectacle of young adults situated around it.

Sokka nodded, handing Mai a plate. "Nothing's going on. We're just sitting here, trying to execute a brilliant plan to learn the secrets of the universe." He twiddled his thumbs, obviously pleased with his statement.

Mai motioned Mathil, who set her suitcase down next to her before leaving the family kitchen. "If the secrets of the universe include this thing, I'm game."

Everyone gasped for the second time in two days.

"You know, that's really getting old. So what, another egg. Big deal. They're popping up all over nowadays, aren't they?" Toph stated matter-of-factly.

"So…seven eggs. That we know of. Why us?" Suki asked, looking piercingly at Iroh.

The old man cleared his throat, raising his hands in defeat. "You'll all learn soon enough."

"Funny. You said that three days ago," Katara noted, turning to offensive. "Are they dangerous? Why do we have them? Why not someone else? Iroh, I know you know. Can't you just tell us?"

Iroh grinned at her, his eyes sweeping over the table full of children before turning back to his kettle, which was starting to whistle. "Patience. I don't think you'll have to wait long." He stirred some leaves into a cup, swishing scalding water on them before blowing on the concoction and taking a long draught. "Tonight, I think."

"Tonight?" Zuko asked. "What's happening tonight?"

Iroh looked at his nephew, eyes gleaming. "Who knows? But, I think, many things to your advantage. And theirs."

"Theirs? Who?"

But Iroh left the kitchen without a glance back. The room was silent for several minutes, until Mai spoke up.

"So. Looks like I was right. This is where the action is."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: It's been a long day. Scratch that-it's been a long week. I just...I dunno. It's been bittersweet.

First and foremost, I discovered that my comedy story, "If Digimon Could Type," was removed. It was a horrible story, and it did break the rule about having a chat-based story, but...it was a comfort to write and see the responses to a teenage girl's randomness. And now it's gone, and I'm an idiot and didn't save any of the chapters after I finished uploading them, so it will never be read again, and...yeah, I might have been in shock all of yesterday. Not a good time.

And then...yeah. I wasn't allowed to post until now, so sorry for the delay.

Anyway. Enough about my complaints. You're here for the next installment. I loved this chapter. It was a horror to write, it took me ages because I couldn't figure out how to approach it. I think you'll see as you read it. It's heavy, it's not very hopeful, but I love it all the same. I promise you, what you've been waiting for will happen...in the _next_ chapter!

* * *

They had gathered around a tree—the same tree that, three years prior, seven of them had gathered around to discuss the fate of the world. There were several differences in the circumstances from then and the present. First of all, that was, of course, three years ago—another member had joined them since then, and they were all lacking a substantial group of friends this time. Second of all, three years ago it had been sunny, a perfect, albeit rather hot, summer day. At the moment, a storm stained the sky; the park was devoid of most of its usual occupants. In fact, the only people present at the moment were the eight around the tree.

Third of all, in this occasion, a tense silence filled the air.

It wasn't really quiet; they were still in the center of a large city. Rainstorms stop some, but most people stop for nothing. Traffic could be heard over the incessant rain. Laughter filled the air from a shop across the street. In one apartment a dog barked for no apparent reason.

But this silence was different than one that someone hears. It was a silence that was riddled with doubt, and fear, and confusion, and anger.

There was something tangible in the air as well, something inexplicably and horribly and wonderfully present amongst the silence of doubt and fear.

Hope.

Many things had happened earlier that day. Each child had a story to tell; but none did. Now wasn't the time—those strange occurrences had all but slipped from their minds as they stared at the redheaded boy in the center.

He stared at a laptop, typing intently away at it.

No one dared break the silence. If they did, the hope might disappear as well—the event might be established as a cosmic joke, and a bad one at that. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding…maybe it meant nothing…

And so they refrained from starting up a conversation, even though several of them hadn't talked in about as many years as since their last adventure. After all, if this worked, they would have all the time in the world for catching up.

Mimi stared at the group. They had changed; that much was obvious. They had grown up. That had been bound to happen; but did it have to? Couldn't they have stayed the silly little group of kids they had been last time? Sora didn't have her helmet anymore; Joe was lacking his medical bag. Tai still had his goggles and headband, sure, and T.K. was still wearing an obnoxious hat, but Tai's goggles looked faded, and T.K.'s hat wasn't a baseball cap. It was all so…wrong.

To her, it was as if more than just Tai's goggles had faded. It was as if the entire group had faded a bit in the last three years, as if they were just a shell of the energy they had once had.

_But what was she expecting? _ It wasn't as though the rest of the group would dress in their signature outfit from the past for no apparent reason. Mimi wasn't even wearing that pink dress anymore; that was tucked back in her closet, waiting for the next nostalgic attack to come. If this didn't work, it would come sooner rather than later. As soon as Sora had called her about the sudden meeting, she had run to her closet and plucked out the first reasonably stylish things she could find. Thus, Mimi Tachikawa was stuck wearing a light green tank top, a pair of shorts, cowboy boots, and a magenta jacket, the hood over her long hair. It may not have all matched, but no one could say she looked shabby.

The others weren't concerned about their looks. The only thing they were concerned about was the chatter of the computer as the rain continued to deepen. Droplets fell on them, but they were ignored, a disturbance unimportant enough to cause a fuss, not at that moment.

Cars beeped in the distance; birds hummed lightly. Rain continued to cascade down as Izzy continued to type away.

No one talked. No one dared so much as cough.

Down the street from the park, a police man sat finishing his coffee. The storm had pulled him off of the street, and he needed a little bit of caffeine to get back in order. Just as he got up to pay for his drink, he noticed a group of children gathered in the park. In the middle of a storm. Sitting there, doing nothing.

If that wasn't suspicious behavior, he didn't know what was. He threw some money on the table, nodded at an employee behind the counter as he flashed his badge as an excuse, and left the restaurant. The winds were heightening; the clouds darkening. Rolling his eyes at his misfortune, the police officer started toward the group gathered in the park.

Without a cue, the kids congregated closer—a shuffle forward here, a crawl there—an unspoken assessment told them that Izzy was almost through with whatever he was doing. They huddled in a circle, staring at the laptop. Without warning, it beeped, a small sound barely heard over the increasing wind. Izzy let his fingers fall to his side.

And then Kari took out a little electronic device. Without a word, she stood up and held it up to the sky.

The police officer had been stuck waiting for traffic to ease. By the time he managed to cross the street, something had happened. All of the kids—eight of them, it looked like—were standing up in a circle. One of them had picked up what looked to be a laptop, and was holding it cradled in one arm as he held up a…device…in the other.

Each child was holding a strange device up to the sky, staring at the clouds as if trying to see something, something other than the rain. They didn't look that old—but even if they were being perfectly legal, they needed to get home in a storm like this. Not under a tree. And someone had told him it wouldn't rain today…

A sudden flash resonated in the policeman's eyesight, stopping him in his tracks as he lost vision. Lightning, maybe? It appeared to have come from the children. Since when did little electronic things make flashes that bright, bright enough to blind him? A loud crack filled the air, followed by an increase in the wind. The storm felt like it was raging harder than before. And then, suddenly, without warning—much like the light—the storm abated. It was still raining, but it was letting up. The police officer blinked, trying to gain his bearings once again.

By the time his vision cleared, the park was empty.

* * *

He was waiting for them.

Three years had passed since the boundary between the worlds had closed, and yet he looked the same as he had when they first met him. This is to say, he looked impossibly old.

They had made it; the Digiworld, that place of wonder and monstrosity and love, was surrounding them once again. And yet all that mattered was the elderly man at the bottom of the hill, standing solemnly gazing off into the distance.

The landing had been rough, but that had been expected; the majority had gone through such a journey twice before. The first sights that met most of their eyes were a captivatingly blue sky, or a ground seemingly devoid of anything other than the softest grass. One set of eyes opened to a dark black color; however, once Joe jumped up, his eyes saw more than just Mimi's newest purse.

No one broke the silence. Much as it had been preserved in Odaiba's park, this was also a test of faith—there was no one among them who hadn't dreamed that this would happen. And if it were just a dream—well, they would deal with that when the time came to wake up once again.

However, the silence wasn't the same as the one in the city. That had been full of sounds and presences. This silence was empty in comparison; not a creature appeared to stir, the wind didn't dare so much as move a wisp of a cloud up ahead. The world, too, seemed to be holding its breath.

The silence was destroyed by the cracking of a stick.

The other seven got to their feet, looking around in amazement and fear.

They were back. Really and truly back.

Something was coming. But, nevertheless, the relief that this couldn't be a mirage overshadowed any fear anyone might have felt.

Another stick cracked, this time closer than before.

"What could it be this time?" Matt whispered as he turned toward the sound.

Izzy closed his laptop, shoving it into its case. "Hopefully not a Kuwagamon. I'd rather not repeat the past with him again. I don't think he left us with any good feelings."

Sora motioned for the two boys to quiet down, not that either had been speaking loudly in the first place. However, both took her lead as they stared toward where they thought the intruder was located.

He emerged several feet to the right of their supposition: an old, grey-haired man, incomprehensibly short and wrinkled, humanlike in features. He appeared to smile as he caught sight of them; they stared back at him.

"Digidestined! I thought I saw you fall over here!"

None had a response to that.

Gennai cleared his throat, a loud rasping destroying any remaining semblance of peace and quiet. "Well. Come. We have to hurry. We can't be out here too long, after all…too dangerous."

The group on the hill stood still. "What do you mean?" Tai called down. However, the old man turned around and started walking away, back the way he came. "What the—Gennai! Don't leave us hanging like this!"

"Hurry up, then!" was his response.

Grabbing his sister's hand, Tai led the group into the forest after their mentor.

* * *

The Digiworld was…different. Izzy, with all of his knowledge, couldn't find a better word to describe what had changed about the alternate reality. As the Digidestined struggled to keep Gennai in their sights—he ran fast for an old man—the redhead tried to figure out what was so 'different' about it.

He had received the email, and had worked as quickly as he could to get them there. Izzy hadn't bothered to ask questions. On any other occasion, he might have; at this point, he had more questions than he could keep track of, and it was taking all of his willpower not to voice them to the world. How had they managed to get back?—sure, Gennai had sent a configured program that Izzy had had to decode, and the Digivices were the propelling energy that created the whole in the worlds, but…was the bridge between worlds open once again?

Why were they there, when Gennai had promised that they weren't allowed to come back? And where were their Digimon? Tentomon had to be somewhere…

But now wasn't the time for questions.

Gennai was still trotting ahead at a brisk pace; even Tai, soccer player that he was, was having trouble keeping pace after five minutes.

Then, suddenly, Gennai disappeared.

The Chosen stopped and stared for a moment at the surrounding trees; nothing threatening appeared. With a nod to the group, Tai led them forward.

Gennai hadn't disappeared, per say. He had simply descended into a steep valley.

It was when they caught sight of what was in the valley that Izzy said his word again for the second time in the same day.

"Prodigious."

Gennai was standing at the base of the incline; however, it couldn't have been a natural valley. If it was, a lot of plants had suddenly been uprooted: the round around him was barren, a dirt wasteland. The sky was strangely clear after the multitude of trees they had run through to get to this place. The flora had to have been cleared to make way for the thing in the center of the valley.

"Come on down already. We don't have a lot of time left," the old man called up at the group, which had been gawking at the top of the hill.

"Gennai…what is that supposed to be?" Matt asked, half in awe, half in fear.

He sighed. "Come down, and I'll explain things briefly."

One by one, they slid down the incline and into the valley. None took his eyes off of the fountain in the center.

It could only be called a fountain, despite the lack of water coming out. It stood on a raised platform, with several steps on either side leading up to the immense bowl structure in the center—the place where the water would settle. It gleamed in a shifting light…one second it appeared gold, the next it seemed to be more silvery…as if it couldn't decide which color made it look more threatening or majestic.

Whatever color it was, it wasn't natural. It was the only manmade—Digimon-made?—synthetic—object they had seen in the past ten minutes of running through the still forest. Down in the valley, the wind was stronger than ever; it was _creating _the wind.

And, if this weren't enough, at the center of the pool stood mass of—well, of light. There was no better way to describe it. A whirlwind of blues and greens, red and yellows, all the colors of the rainbow mixed and interspersed in a circle in the middle. It appeared to never end, just continuing up into the sky; but that couldn't be right—they hadn't noticed the light from the top of the valley…

Just another day in the Digiworld.

Around the base was a stream of incomprehensible symbols. Digicode, Izzy recognized vaguely. He started to take his laptop out to analyze them, but Gennai interrupted that train of thought.

"This is the Portal. You must enter it."

"What?" Tai, Joe, and TK asked simultaneously.

"That swarm of lights. It's the Portal…you have to step through it," Gennai explained slowly, as if talking to a child.

"We got that part. We meant, why?" Tai asked.

Gennai looked troubled. "It's…you're needed someplace else. This world is too dangerous at the moment."

"But you called _us _here. We didn't just decide one day that we were going to break into the Digiworld randomly," Joe said sharply. Izzy nodded in agreement. "Where's Gomamon?"

"And Palmon?"

"Gatomon…"

"They're busy elsewhere."

This time, it was Sora, Mimi, and Matt's turn to question Gennai's newest information.

"I'm sorry," he responded; he did indeed look morose at bearing the news, "you can't meet up again just yet. Too many things still remain in the balance. You have to go through the portal…"

"I'm not going anywhere until I see Agumon," Tai snapped, taking a step back.

"Then you will condemn an entire world to suffering and pain!"

"What…what do you mean?" Mimi asked after a moment's silence.

Gennai sighed. "Our worlds aren't connected yet. You could have only come across when you did, during a few hours worth of a time allotment when the rift between the worlds was the weakest. I'm grateful you got here as efficiently as you did; another ten minutes, and the connection would have been lost once again.

"However, I have to send you somewhere else. This world is…well, in trouble. I'm sure you've noticed that." Izzy nodded. "But a different world, not this one, nor your own, is also having its own dilemma, even if it hasn't noticed it yet. And that dilemma stems from here."

"Can't they solve their own problems?" Matt asked. He looked annoyed; Izzy couldn't really blame him. They had just gotten back, and now they were being sent away without even seeing an actual Digimon…

"They'll need you. And you need them. I'm sure you've realized that," Gennai said, sounding more like his cryptic self than before.

At this newest statement, each of the children looked down. Izzy barely noticed this over his own conflicted emotions. The sidewalk moved…he hadn't paid attention to it before, hadn't given it any thought, but…what if that really had been him? The others had come so willingly…not that they would have been reluctant, but they had looked more determined than they ought to have…

Gennai interrupted the musings. "Yes; you'll figure all that out when you get there. I'm sorry I can't explain more, but this Portal is about to lose its own access soon. You have to go through."

"Gennai…" Sora said, appearing to fight back tears, "where are you sending us?"

"Ah, that's the question, isn't it?" he replied with a slight smile. "A place in full control of fire and water, air and earth. A place of four nations." He turned around to look at the portal. The colored cylinder of light was spinning more violently than before; the phasing base was a blur of bronzes and grays. "You'll see your Digimon when you get back. Go."

Without waiting to see if they would heed his advice, he turned around and started to climb slowly up the valley wall.

The children all looked at each other. "Should we do what he says?" Sora asked, hesitantly.

Tai looked around for a moment, then nodded. "We don't really have a choice, do we?" Despite his words, he didn't sound bitter. He sounded excited, more than anything else.

"We have a choice. But this is the only one that makes sense," Kari said with a slight smile.

Joe smirked. "Oh, yeah, because traveling to a _new _world when we just came to _this _makes sense." However, he stepped up onto the platform. "Izzy, do you think this thing is dangerous?"

Izzy thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't think so. No more dangerous than it is getting into the Digiworld."

"I…you know what? I think I'm allergic to portals…" the blue-haired boy started to step down.

"Scaredy-cat," Mimi said, sticking her tongue up at him as she herself jumped up onto the step, forcing him to stay where he was. "Come on. The sooner we go through here, the sooner we come back and see Palmon and the others again."

Her logic did make a valid point.

One by one, the rest of the Digidestined stepped up to the platform, four on each side. The colors were moving faster than ever.

"Here goes nothing…" Tai murmured. Then, grabbing Kari's hand, he called out, "We'll be back," resounding in screams of affirmation from the other seven.

And, without further hesitation, the eight leapt into the swirl of color and disappeared.

Almost immediately, the wind died down in the valley; the oval slowed and slowed until it faded completely away, leaving an empty fountain stuck at a stunning golden color. The symbols around the base glowed brightly for a moment before fading to their original shade.

At the top of the valley, Gennai watched. "I hope you will be," he said to the empty air around him.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: The Saga of Chapter 5: One day, Cresto happily started to type chapter 5. All was going well until her computer decided to hate her and crash unexpectedly. Not to be deterred, when she rebooted, she tried again and happily rewrote what she had just lost.

Then, much to her dismay, her computer screen went black, and would never again light up. This was the beginning of electronics randomly dying in her use. So Cresto got a new computer, and a few weeks later, after mustering the courage and willpower, finally tried again, for a third time.

This time she saved her progress after every fifty words, and on multiple flash drives.

Thus, this chapter took a lot of work and rewriting. And it's the most important chapter for this story, really. It took about a month to finish, just because of the various mishaps when I originally got around to writing it. But I love it, and I hope you do too!

On a different note, reviews are always welcome. I'm at home for the first time since college...goodness, it feels so _wrong _here...and tomorrow's my birthday, coincidentally. So feel free to leave a friendly word and tell me what you think!

* * *

"Roku, I'm confused."

The sun was setting over the distant mountains surrounding Ba Sing Se; it had been another long day. Not long, as in defeating-the-evil-overlord-and-preventing-the-des truction-of-all-the-nations-in-one-afternoon long, but still, long.

With the approaching night, the city was coming alive in a way it never was during the day. Lanterns were lit, with and without Firebending; people came out to socialize and celebrate. There was nothing to celebrate but life itself. And that made the celebration all the more worthwhile.

Not everyone was celebrating, however.

"It's just—I've always known what's expected of me. I'm the Avatar: I had to master the four elements, and then I had to defeat the Firelord. And when that was over, I've had to preserve the peace. It hasn't been too bad of a job so far." Aang was sitting on the rooftop of the Jasmine Dragon, watching the night life begin. Next to him, Momo was sitting peacefully.

"But…now, with the eggs…I don't know what they are, or what's expected of me this time. I don't think this has ever happened before; Sokka's looked up everything he could, and even he's stumped."

Momo's head perked up as a buttercricket fluttered lazily past.

"I know, I know; I'm the Avatar, I should be prepared to face whatever's coming. But I don't think I am."

The buttercricket flittered an inch too close; Momo got up and started to curiously follow it.

"What are the eggs even for? We've all been wondering; there are seven eggs, and they all ended up in our group. Is that just a coincidence?"

After a few moments of lazing around, the buttercricket landed on the top of one of the chimneys, just out of the smoke stream. It was as safe a place to rest as any; at least, it would have been if one didn't take into account the lemur nearby.

"I know what you would say: 'Aang, patience. All will be made clear shortly.' But, Roku, I don't want to wait. What if the eggs are dangerous and Iroh doesn't know what he's talking about?"

Momo sneaked forward, hoping his snack wouldn't notice his approach. It didn't.

"Kyoshi would tell me to destroy the egg and work out the consequences later. But I don't want to destroy it. That would be…wrong. It's just an egg. What harm could an egg do?"

Momo's hands snapped down on the side of the chimney, where the buttercricket had been lying. However, it wasn't there anymore. It was flying around, trying to get away from the killer lemur. Momo quickly took up chase.

"I just wish I knew what was going to happen."

"Aang?" Katara's head appeared from a second-story bedroom window. "What are you doing up here?"

He smiled slightly, before leaning back and looking up at the now-darkened sky. "Talking to myself."

"Oh. Why don't you actually talk to Roku, if you want advice so much?" Katara asked, catching on quickly. She struggled to sit on the windowsill, making sure she had a good handle on the frame before leaning back and up.

"Because I know what he'd say. And I don't want to hear it," the Avatar responded. "I need to figure this out without my past lives' help."

Katara nodded once. "Well, whenever you want to come in, the rest of us are in Toph's room playing cards. And Toph can't cheat at this game—well, technically, she can't play, but she's enjoying butting in, all the same…anyway, we could use another player…" She let that statement hang in the air for a few moments before sighing slightly. "Come in soon."

With that, the Waterbender ducked back into the room.

Aang laid back on the rooftop. The sky was starting to become riddled with stars again, now that the sun had all but disappeared. "Roku, if somehow you can hear me, even though I'm not in the Avatar state…and I'm not really talking to you anyway…don't help me. Let me figure this out by myself."

Momo was chasing the buttercricket around one of the chimneys. After a few laps, the buttercricket flew upward and into the night; the lemur continued to circle the stonework, finally tripping and landing on Aang's lap, causing him to chuckle. The boy sat up and petted him behind the ears, staring down at the creature.

"Iroh said that whatever was going to happen would happen tonight. Momo, let's keep watch together."

Momo didn't appear to disagree with Aang's statement. He stared up at the Avatar's face. Or, rather, past his face—at the sky above him. "What are you looking at—whoa."

Aang had stopped looking at the sky for several moments; just long enough to pet Momo a dozen times. And, when he looked up again, the sky had transfigured.

"Katara, you guys might want to see this. I think it's starting," he called down to the teenagers in the room below him. Katara and Suki appeared.

"Aang, what's starting—oh," Suki said, her voice giving out as she looked up. "That's incredible!" With the agility she possessed from being a Kyoshi warrior, she maneuvered her way out of the window and onto the roof, standing next to Aang.

"That's an aurora borealis." Sokka stated as the rest joined at the window, taking turns crawling up onto roof. "But…we're too far south for this."

Colored lights trailed across the sky, shifting incessantly. Around the city, people were looking up in various states of wonder and fear.

Now all of the teenagers were on the roof; Sokka and Zuko had helped Toph climb up. "Is this what Iroh was talking about?" Katara asked the group in large as they gazed at the sky. "Is anything happening to the eggs?"

"We all left our eggs inside…" Mai stated. "I'd rather enjoy the light show than worry about the egg, if you don't mind."

As if to thwart her statement, at that moment the northern lights disappeared from the sky.

"Was that…all?" Zuko asked.

Sokka shrugged, looking around. The city-dwellers were returning to their lives once again, now that the spectacle was over. "Oh, well. I guess that wasn't what we were supposed to be waiting for. I'm going back inside…"

"Wait…" Aang was still staring at the sky, squinting in concentration. "Is that…Toph!"

"No, Toph's right next to you…"

However, Toph understood Aang's call. Together, she and the Avatar motioned several sharp thrusts, first up, then toward each other. The rock from the rooftop followed their motion, creating a new roof over them. Toph formed a wall on one more side; Aang ran out of the open side. "Stay here," he ordered the other six. "I need to make sure nothing bad happens." And, twirling his staff into the glider, he leapt into the air.

Sokka didn't have time to ask any questions before the first of the storm hit. Toph and Aang had gotten their shelter up just in time. Thunder cackled; rain pounded. Lightning set fire to several houses at once. The worst damage was caused by hail the size of cabbages.

Aang was out there, in the midst of the storm. The denizens had run once the storm had started, but damage was still being dealt. He put out several of the larger fires, knocked away hail whenever he could, turning the other pieces into water when he found time.

He didn't bother going into the Avatar state. Even in that form, he would have been overwhelmed.

As quickly and as ferociously as the storm started, it ended without warning. One moment the wind was howling, the next the city and sky above it were silent. Aang had traveled far in the little time; he flew over the city back to the Dragon, observing the damage. People were in hysterics; the few brave enough to enter the streets after the freak weather were cursing the misfortune of ruined vending stalls or roofs.

But no one seemed to be injured.

Back on their own rooftop, no one had uttered a sound yet. Toph had added a few more layers to their slapdash shelter, preventing the hail from bursting through; with a statement from Zuko, she slowly morphed the rock back into the building's framework. Aang landed silently next to them, his glider a staff once more.

"What just happened?" Katara asked to the world in large. The world failed to answer her.

Toph, however, took her prompt. "Something landed. Several somethings, actually."

Everyone turned to stare at her. "What?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Look—er, listen, we know that it hailed…" Suki said skeptically.

"Duh. I'm not talking about the hail. I was feeling the ground around the city—Bumi's been teaching me. Aang, remind me to make that your next lesson." Aang grimaced as Toph propped a piece of rock up and leaned against it. "I'm talking about seven—no, eight—things that landed down that way." She pointed to a section of the city that looked as if it had been hit harder than the rest. After a few moments, she added simply, "…they were _bigger_ than the hail."

* * *

Traveling via portal would never be one of Tai's favorite experiences.

They had jumped through the swirling light willingly enough; Gennai hadn't exactly offered them a lot of choice in the matter.

It wasn't even the traveling that Tai disliked, exactly. It was the landing-into-the-unknown that made it an uncomfortable, if quick, journey. The flash of lights, the break-neck speed, the disorientation, that was okay.

It was the sudden feeling of hard ground under him that made it anything other than okay.

His head was pounding—whether from the adrenaline rush or from actual pain, he couldn't tell yet. His eyes were squeezed shut—he had already tried to open them, and had quickly established that as a bad idea. The world was still spinning, even if he was no longer speeding into other dimensions.

The ground was hard, but it didn't feel like cement. Packed dirt, maybe? Whatever it was, it was extremely comfortable…the pounding in his head was slowing down…maybe just a few moments of sleep…

Something nudged Tai in the arm. "Tai. Tai, get up."

"A few more minutes, Kari…" the boy mumbled, sighing. It was too early…

"Tai, we need to figure out where we are. To do that, I suggest you get up and join the rest of us." That was Izzy. _Where we are_…Tai's eyes popped open, his headache forgotten. It had worked.

It _had _worked; of course it had. There they, the Digidestined, were. In…in a street, surrounded by buildings on every side but one.

"We appear to be in some sort of alley," Izzy was saying as he nudged Joe, who was still on the ground. The blue-haired boy groaned and covered his face with his hands. Tai sat up slowly.

They were in various states of getting up from the fall. Matt stood by Mimi and TK, who in turn were slowly looking around—TK in wonder, Mimi in confusion. Kari had moved past Tai to Sora, who was stumbling to her feet. Joe was refusing to budge still.

"Please tell me that we're back home, under the tree, and that smell is just the rain stirring up some trash," he said in one long breath, holding his eyes closed.

Sora chuckled as she finally found her balance. "Sorry, no such luck."

"Would you really want to be back home?" Matt questioned quietly. Joe sighed.

"No," he muttered, almost imperceptibly. "Promise there's no flesh-eating zombies or rampaging crocodiles in the immediate vicinity?" Without waiting for a response, he sat himself up and opened his eyes. "Where are we?" he asked, more serious than he had been previously.

Tai fought the urge to roll his eyes. It was a valid question, if slightly obvious. However, Mimi apparently felt no such qualms. "We're in an alley in a new world. Didn't you hear Izzy?"  
Joe stared at her. "It was a rhetorical question."

"You two, stop." Sora quickly stepped between Mimi and Joe before the conversation could continue. "We're all just a little tired and disappointed."

Tired—maybe. It was late here, wherever here was. The sky was dark, the alley was dimly lit by stars up above. Tai assumed they were stars. This place had better have real stars.

But disappointed—now, that was the true problem. They had arrived in their dream world; well, world of dreams and nightmares, but they liked to think about the pros more than the cons. They had been in the Digiworld, a feat they had been hoping toward since they had first left it, three years ago. And then, to be kicked out after less than an hour, to be sent to another world in place of their own or their favorite one, without even seeing their Digimon…that took a toll.

But enough of that. This was another adventure, right? "Guys, I agree with Joe," Tai said, standing himself up and wiping the dirt off of his jeans. "We've got to figure out where we are before we do anything else."

"And how exactly are we going to do that? Assuming the locals are can actually speak our language, we just ask where we are?" Matt asked skeptically. "Eight kids, appearing randomly in an alley, who are completely lost? Isn't that a little suspicious?"

Tai glared at his friend. "Why does that matter? What matters is we figure out why we're here."

Matt raised his hands in mock defeat. "Okay, I'm just saying that, if I were from this place, I wouldn't trust eight random kids."

* * *

"I don't trust them."

"Sokka, you don't even know who they are. Aren't you being a bit hasty?"

"Katara, there're eight people down there, and if we believe Toph, they fell from the sky. For all we know, they could be alien zombies! See, Zuko? I told you they'd appear! Time to start the counteroffensive!"

Katara grabbed her brother by the ear and spoke. "For all we know, they could be normal citizens that just fell from the roof."

"Why would they be on a roof in the middle of a storm?" Sokka asked, trying to get free from her grip while maintaining a grip on a walking stick he had grabbed before they ran over there.

"_We_ were on a roof in the middle of a storm." Katara let go of her brother, who fell back onto the street and into a puddle. Sokka went chasing after the piece of wood before it rolled into the alleyway. He held it possessively as he looked back to his sister.

"Oh, yeah…"

"I don't know, Katara…" Suki muttered as she stepped past Sokka to gaze into the alleyway. "They're dressed pretty peculiarly."

"So?" Katara thought quickly. "They could have been having a costume party, or maybe they're foreigners…"

"But their hair…it's yellow and blue…"

"Can't we just trust them? Innocent until proven guilty? I mean, what have they done wrong!?" Katara quietly shouted at her.

Suki didn't buckle under the Waterbender's anger. "I'm just saying, don't get too chummy just yet. Let's first figure out what they're doing here."

"What do you think they're doing? Plotting to take over the world?"

The group of seven observed the group of eight in the alleyway. It lacked any subtlety—in fact, Zuko and Suki were forced to actually stand in the entranceway of the alley to see inside, and Aang was crouching rather blatantly on the rooftop—but the strangers didn't seem to notice their audience. They seemed too busy trying to sit up straight. One of them, the blue-haired boy, was refusing to get up at all.

"I don't think so," Toph answered the rhetorical question Katara had posed. "They seem…confused."

"Yeah. They're not the only ones who are confused at the moment," Zuko said bluntly.

"Aang? What should we do?" asked Mai, who was staring with disinterest at the scene unfolding around them.

He looked at down at her. "Why are you asking me? How would I know?"

"I didn't really want a response. I just figured that everyone else has asked you that at some point. I wanted to have a turn." With a small smile, she leaned against the wall outside of the alley, observing her fingernails.

"Um…okay, then. We should…" Aang suddenly stood up straight and waved his arm. "Hi!" he called out.

"Psst! Aang!" Sokka said, putting his hands to his mouth. "What are you doing? Are you trying to blow our cover?"

The boy pouted, still waving. "No. I'm just being friendly. Our cover's already blown, anyway." He pointed at a little girl, standing in the middle of the alleyway, waving curiously at the boy on the rooftop.

* * *

"We haven't done anything wrong. Can't we just go and say hi to someone?"

"Mimi, do you see anyone?" Matt asked, his arms crossed.

The girl huffed in irritation. "I'm sure if we just _left_ this alley, we'd find people."

"But what if…"

Kari turned away from the conversation. Once Matt and Mimi got started, there was no stopping them; actually, she had noticed that, once anyone in the group started to fight, everything usually went downhill. Tai liked to talk about teamwork, but that seemed to be easier said than done. In this situation, looking around was usually better for one's morale than staring at the soon-to-be shouting match.

The ground was dirt; the walls were stone. The sky was a deep black, the kind rarely seen over Odaiba's illuminations. Stars twinkled above; however, Kari found them unfamiliar. The constellations were different. _Like in the Digiworld_.

Kari continued to look around the alley. It could have been any alleyway in any city: trash piles littered the sides of the buildings, clothes were hung above them between the two buildings, people were staring at them from the outside of the alley…

At the moment, Matt was wrong.

There _were_ people. People who were observing them rather conspicuously.

Turning back to the group, Kari winced. Tai and Joe had joined the argument, each elaborating on Mimi and Matt's case, respectively. It didn't look like either side was going to back down anytime soon. And, as much as she wanted to mention her findings to the group, any remarks she made would probably go unnoticed.

So Kari did the next best thing. She went back to examining the group that was assessing them.

There were at least four of them. Perhaps more, if their glances past the end of the building were anything to go by. At the moment, all that were visible were two boys and two girls…they appeared to be arguing, as well.

Maybe they were arguing about whether or not to say hello.

A motion on the rooftop over that group drew Kari's attention. It was a boy, a small bald boy, looking at the Digidestined curiously from above.

Before Kari had time to question what the boy was doing on the roof in the first place, the boy caught her gaze. Hesitantly, she started to wave.

* * *

It was then that the rest of the Digidestined noticed the observers. They stopped arguing, and looked cautiously toward where Kari was waving.

It was then that the rest of Team Avatar stepped forward, around the corner and into the alley. Only Sokka had a weapon out, if a walking stick pointed tauntingly at the newcomers could count as dangerous.

It was then that they truly saw each other for the first time.

* * *

One of the boys was holding a stick.

That was the first thing Joe noticed about the teenagers walking into the alley. One of the boys—the one with the strange ponytail—was pointing a stick at them.

Joe wasn't sure if he wanted to cower or laugh. He decided to just raise his eyebrows.

A stick. It wasn't even that sharp. It was just a walking stick. And it was pointed at them like a spear. But it wasn't a spear.

Focus. He was fixating on one part of what was happening—and that wouldn't help him. But Joe needed something to focus on before he decided that he wanted to run home and crawl back into bed.

That's how the Digiworld was. Scary, humorous at times, and always a goal in mind—get home, defeat the bad guys, find food, sleep. Objectives. Joe needed an objective, that was all…and there was a stick that may or not be a weapon, pointed right at them…

"At least it's not an angry Kuwagamon this time…" Matt muttered, also looking amusedly at the stick in the boy's hand. Joe nodded in agreement. Yes, no giant red bug monsters to chase them until they were lost this time…but Joe wasn't going to say that aloud. No need to jinx themselves at the moment. He would take a bunch of strangely-clad kids and a simple stick any day.

Suddenly, without warning, a shape came from the sky. The Digidestined all instinctively took a step in the opposite direction; Tai pulled Kari back to join the rest of the group.

When Joe saw what had fallen, he gasped.

It was a boy. He looked about the same age as Izzy, perhaps—it was hard to tell, since he was bald. He had descended from the sky in a flurry of wind and dust, spinning a different stick—what was it with these people and sticks?—around to help slow his descent. He touched lightly on the group, standing tall between the strangers and the Digidestined.

"Who are you?" he asked. His voice was commanding, if young.

Joe saw Tai take a step forward. "We're the Digidestined," he responded. His voice wasn't quite as powerful as the younger boy's, but it wasn't scared.

The group approaching looked around each other. A girl, with short brown hair, spoke. "Digi…" she said, as if the word were from a different language. "As in Digi-egg?"

"Yeah…wait, how do you know about Digieggs?" Tai asked, all caution forgotten.

However, the answer never came. "Where did you come from?" a boy with black hair asked, stepping next to the bald boy. There was something on the right side of his face, but Joe couldn't make it out in the dark lighting.

"Er…we were just taking a late-night stroll down this marvelous city of…um…"

"Bah Sing Se?" the bald boy interjected.

"…of course, Bah Sing Se, silly me," Tai finished, grinning broadly.

The strangers looked around each other for a moment. A girl in the center—short, dark hair in a bun, facing the opposite direction for some unknown reason—shook her head. "They're lying," she said simply.

Joe bit his lip. "And now they'll kill us for lying…" he said quietly, causing Matt to chuckle and Sora to grimace.

Unabashedly, Tai took another step forward. "You don't know that we're lying. We're allowed to have a healthy walk every now and then!"

"But you appeared from nowhere," the girl who had condemned their previous story said, crossing her arms. "You just landed on the ground in the middle of that storm. And don't deny it, Goggles." She pointed at Tai accusingly.

Kari stifled a chuckle as Tai looked back at his own group and mouthed 'Goggles' incredulously. He turned back around.

"…okay, okay, you want to know what really happened? We…um…were hang-gliding…"

"Tell the truth," the bald boy said abruptly. He wasn't glaring at them, but he looked like he could start whacking them with his staff at any moment.

Joe decided that now was a good time to intervene. "Ahem…good evening…" he said, stepping forward and waving. "Um, my good friend here was just…um…joking around…we were…we were…" At that moment, nothing good came to mind. "…scaling buildings…?"

Tai rolled his eyes at Joe. "If you step forward to speak, at least have a good cover story!" he hissed, but his eyes twinkled in amusement. Joe blushed and stepped back; Mimi patted him on the shoulder.

Finally, their goggle-headed leader sighed. "Okay, fine. We were transported here from a different world; we're not quite sure why yet. I'm Tai, and…"

"See! I told you they'd try to take over! I told you!" the pony-tailed teenager was saying excitedly.

"Sokka, that story makes less sense than the one about hang-gliding," the first girl—the one with the short hair—said. "Stop thinking that everyone's trying to take over…"

"We're not trying to take over!" Sora said quickly. "We don't know why we're here."

The bald boy—he seemed to be the unlikely leader of the seven of them—looked at the black-haired girl. She shrugged. "They're telling the truth, as strange as it seems. Either that, or they have Azula's skill at lying, which I'd rather not contemplate, because then Sokka would be right. And that in and of itself is a scary thought."

"Wait, so you seriously came from a different world?" came a girl who hadn't spoken yet—this one (Joe's mind was starting to spin from all the new faces) had skin as dark as the pony-tail boy, with dark hair in a braid and ringlets around the side of her face.

As one, the Digidestined nodded.

"So you're who Iroh was talking about," she said, more to herself than to the Chosen Children.

"…who's Iroh?" TK asked, looking at his older brother. Matt shrugged his shoulders in reply.

"Listen, we don't know any 'Iroh,' but we have no idea why we're here…do you?" Tai asked.

The group looked at each other briefly before staring down Joe's group. He gulped in response.

"No. But we know someone who does," the bald boy said.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: It's cold. Just saying.

Well. Thus starts about three or four chapters that are a bit slow, but they are necessary. And I try to put in fun parts, to make them more interesting. Seriously, I promise, Chapter 10 is when things will really start to pick up. (I'm so close to finishing that chapter, but Tai's POV is making things extremely difficult...ugh...) Any ideas would be wonderful, as always!

Random warning: I don't drink tea. I actually quite dislike tea (and coffee...I'm the unfortunate person that is addicted to hot chocolate. Which I'm going to make myself in two minutes, once this is uploaded). But, well, tea is big in Japan, apparently, and Iroh obviously has a peculiar affinity for it (my sister and I kept a tally of all his tea references. It was large.), tea has to premier. I'm just warning that my tea facts may be completely wrong.

In other news, I read 30 books last month. That's a new high for me. And now, on to the chapter! Enjoy! Review if you feel so inclined!

* * *

TK yawned.

He hadn't meant to; it just slipped out. But he was tired, and he was hungry and cold, and he missed Patamon, and his mind was going into overdrive, and…

He yawned again. As subtly as he could, he covered his mouth with his hands and tried to fight back the instinct to curl up and fall asleep. He wasn't eight anymore…he could handle a long day…

Tai had taken his leadership initiative and was talking with the bald boy and the teenager with the shaggy black hair. TK had missed some of the conversation during his small yawning crisis, but now he strained to listen to it again. "…so you're sure this Iroh guy can explain things?

The teenager shed a small smile. "He's told us almost nothing, but Uncle has been hinting at something big happening…he speaks in riddles on a good day, though, so we didn't know what was going to happen."

"Sounds like this world's version of Gennai…" Matt muttered, chuckling in annoyance. TK nodded once before turning his attention back on the discussion ahead.

"Okay, so we'll go with you to this tea shop place, get things explained, and then…" Tai let his statement trail off. Both groups thought for a moment.

"Then we'll see what we have to do to help the Digiworld," Sora said—her face was ablaze with determination.

Tai nodded at her. "Sounds like a plan to me."

One by one, the groups of seven and eight filed out of the alley and into the streets of a city—what the bald boy had dubbed Bah Sing Se.

It was—enormous. Hectic. A rampage of men and women, noises, lights, smells…exactly what a city should be. Except not like a city on Earth. Not like Odaiba, or Tokyo, or how TK imagined New York City in America was…those were all skyscrapers and cement and cars and exhaust fumes, and the noise that accompanied modern times.

This had none of those hallmarks of city life.

This was dirt roads, and lanterns acting as street lights. Private vendors were assessing remaining wares; several of the carts seemed to bare damage, large holes…but that wasn't the strangest part of the new city.

It was noisy, and bright, but not from cars. There were no cars.

Actually, the more TK looked around, the more he was sure of one thing: there was no signs of anything electric or technological here. There were streetlamps periodically, but these were lit by fires, kerosene or something of that nature.

Izzy, too, seemed to have noticed this. He was clutching his laptop to his chest, hugging it as if afraid it would turn to sand and fall on the ground if he loosened his hold. "There's got to be an outlet somewhere, right?" TK asked the redhead curiously.

In a daze, Izzy nodded. "There has to be…I mean, we were sent here through a temporal portal created from digital code…one can assume that digital code also exists in some form here…"

"They look normal enough. I mean, they look human-not Digimon," Sora said, looking around curiously.

"They were pointing a stick at us," Joe interrupted, as if that settled something—what, TK couldn't quite figure out.

Sora and Joe started to argue about whether the offending stick made them more or less normal, but TK stopped paying attention. They were in a foreign world. For the second time that afternoon. He smirked. Even if Izzy was less than pleased, this place seemed friendly enough...

And that boy. The bald one that looked about Tai and Matt's age. He had jumped from the roof of a building without any trouble.

This world wasn't completely human.

Then again, with what had happened earlier when he was playing basketball, maybe something else was going on...

The Digidestined followed the other teenagers through Bah Sing Se.

Wherever they passed, silence fell. A small, unnoticeable silence that didn't extend into every corner. Life continued. Strangers-young and old-stared as the assortment of children walked by. Well, they had a reason to...the Digidestined kids were brightly attired; TK tugged on the collar of his teal jacket in discomfort. The people around them-they appeared to be mostly clothed in greens and beiges, with a few in a deep red every here and there. Tai, in his bright blue hoodie, and Sora, in a purple-and-red striped sweater, stuck out the most in the dim lighting.

But, as they continued, he noticed that it wasn't just them that elicited the barely concealed stares that briefly paused the bustle of the street. As the bald teen led the group, people stepped aside before continuing with their activities; several even appeared to bow in respect, and their heads remained lowered in wonder as those following appeared within their line of sight.

There was a certain satisfaction that came with stopping conversation all around them. If Patamon were here, heads really would be turning...

After about twenty minutes of navigating the dirt streets, the group arrived at their destination-a two-story building with the words 'Jasmine Dragon' embedded on the stone front.

With a brief look back at the entourage behind him, the shaggy-haired teenager entered the building. One by one the fifteen children filed in; the bald boy waited at the door, overseeing the group. As TK passed, the last of the Digidestined, he paused and lifted his arm in a sort of wave. The bald kid grinned and raised his hand; then he caught himself and looked at the entrance, his boy-like grin fading to a look of confusion.

Emitting a small sigh, TK entered the building. The door closed behind him, and the sounds of the city suddenly disappeared.

* * *

Zuko led the way into the tea shop. The inside was dimly lit; Uncle must have dowsed most of the fires before retiring for the night. It was getting late, but that couldn't be helped. They finally had a clue, even if it was in the form of eight strange children...

"Hey, King of Whatsit or Other, you want to give us some light?" That was Sokka, calmly taking a seat at one of the multiple tables.

"What happened to being afraid of the zombie attackers?" Zuko questioned, crossing his arms. Almost all of the group had entered by now.

"Me? Afraid? You must have been thinking of some other guy," Sokka replied nonchalantly. However, he still clutched his stick in his right hand. "Now, fire away."

As the door closed to the shop, Zuko carefully aimed a fireball at a lamp to his left. The flame caught instantly, illuminating the surprised faces of the strangers. He repeated this act several more times until the room no longer appeared in shadows.

Still standing next to the door, Aang lit one more lamp himself.

The new people-the Digidestined-stared. The shorter yellow-haired kid was smiling widely, as if he had just seen the elusive Unagi. Most of the others were just gaping in surprise; a little girl was the only one who seemed not completely stunned by the display of Firebending.

"...where...are we?" the leader-the boy with the mass of brown hair-asked.

Aang motioned for everyone to sit down. Himself, Zuko, Suki, and Katara joined Sokka at his table, while Mai settled herself on the ground and Toph leaned against a wall behind them. The eight kids took two tables to themselves; all of the chairs were moved to face each other.

"I should get Uncle..." the Firelord muttered, starting to get up. But he didn't. His eyes had been drawn to the doors to the kitchen; a shadow moved under the wooden door. Iroh.

"This is the city of Bah Sing Se," Suki started, "the capital of the Earth Kingdom."

At this statement, the newcomers looked around amongst themselves. One of them-an orange-haired girl-said, "Gennai mentioned...he was sending us to a place of four nations..."

"Well, that's here," Katara responded. "The Four Nations. The Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribe, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads."

"Are they all named after elements?" said the red-haired boy.

"...of course...they're named after the predominant bending done in each location..." Suki answered, looking confused.

"Bending?" the leader asked.

It was Zuko and his group's turn to look incredulously amongst themselves. "You know, Bending. Fire Bending...Air, Water, Earth...like what I did a moment ago...bending," he said, finishing somewhat lamely.

"You mean when you shot fire out of your hands?" the older yellow-hair asked.

Slowly, Team Avatar nodded.

"Is...is that common here?" Orange girl asked. "Can you all...create fire?"

Katara cracked a smile. "No. You have to be a part of the Fire Nation, or at least of their descent, and even then most of the population are non-Benders."

"You really don't know anything about anything, do you?" came Toph, from the wall. "Look, Bending's not exactly uncommon. A fourth of this city can Earth Bend, even if they're wimps."

"Where we come from, Bending doesn't exist..." Blue Hair mentioned. "At least, I don't think it does..." Curiously enough, he was staring at his own hands, as if trying to see something important in them.

"Where do you come from? What brought you here?" Suki asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"Ah, that's the question we've been waiting for," came a voice from the back wall. The door to the kitchen bulged open, and out stepped Iroh, wielding a tray with several pots and a stack of glasses.

* * *

TK raised his eyebrows as a stout elderly man came through a door, carrying a tray of-was that tea?

"Marigold brews the clearest, but I decided to use nutmeg and cardamom tonight. I hope you enjoy." He set the tray down on a nearby table and began to place the cups in front of each of the Digidestined and the others. As he grabbed the first of several steaming tea pots, he paused and smiled to himself. "Excuse me. My name is Iroh."

So this was the man that the other group had been mentioning, that Matt had compared to Gennai. At first glance, TK couldn't find the similarity. Gennai never stopped talking, even if it was random and completely unnecessary-though, their latest encounter went against this supposition. This man talked slowly, as if he considered each word before allowing it to leave his mouth. And Gennai was...well, old. This guy was old, sure, the whitish-grey of his shoulder-length hair attested to that, but he didn't look as if he were anywhere near done with his life. He was round in a happy, relaxed manner, and he looked strong. Gennai was stooped with age; only in a staring contest might their confusing friend beat this man.

But, as a generous helping of sweet-smelling tea was poured into the cup in front of him, TK couldn't find any reason to dislike this stranger.

The other group was silent as Iroh performed his duties as tea-pourer; the only sounds from anyone, actually, were when a muttered 'thanks' were given, to which Iroh only beamed and said, "There now; one can't have a gathering without refreshment." It wasn't until the last tea cup was full, and he had settled down at a table himself, between the two groups, that conversation began again.

Iroh took a sip of his own tea. "Ah, delicious. Now," he said, putting his cup on a saucer, "you're from a different world, yes?"

TK nodded; he could see the rest of his friends doing the same.

"I'm not concerned about that world. There is plenty of time for stories of that later. However," and here, the old man leaned forward, "you didn't get here from that world directly."

It wasn't a question, but Tai still answered. "...yes. We...we tried to go to the Digiworld, but then we were sent to a...portal...and landed here."

"Not here, specifically, but in an alley a bit away..." Joe quickly added.

Iroh smiled a prize-worthy grin. "Nephew, these are the people you have been waiting for."

"How do you know any of this?" the fire-shooting teenager asked.

"Zuko, a member of the White Lotus does not reveal secrets so readily."

There! Finally, a name! The shaggy, black-haired boy, with-was that a scar?-on the right side of his face, the person who had bended fire, was Zuko. In triumph, TK took a sip of his tea; it was sweet and spicy at the same time, a foreign flavor that seemed to distill any yawns the boy still felt like emitting.

"This must be very confusing for all of you," Iroh was saying. "However, all should be made clear soon."

"I hate when you say that..." the ponytail boy said, wiggling his stick around. "How soon is 'soon' this time?"

"Patience is a virtue."

"So is stealth and speed," a girl said.

"The Unagi need only rise for air once a moon, such is its ability to wait."

"One should act with regret rather than regret not acting."

"Excuse me for the interruption, but you're both giving me a headache," the ponytail boy interrupted the exchange between Iroh and the girl. "Go into the other room if you want to have a battle of wits."

Iroh looked around sheepishly; the girl only looked victorious.

"What I want to know...sorry, Izzy, here..." spoke the redhead to TK's left, "You mentioned Fire bending. You can bend the other elements? Water and Earth?"

"And Air," bald boy stated, grinning a little. "Though that's pretty rare at this time." At that line, the group of strangers all smirked, as if sharing a private joke. "So you're really from another world..."

"You bet," Tai said triumphantly, raising his fist as if to punch the ceiling.

And, to the surprise of all assembled, a discernable strain of fire shot briefly out of his fist and toward the enclosed heavens.

* * *

"Tai..." one of the girls from the Digidestined was saying.

Tai, the one wearing goggles, was staring in shock at the space above his head. "So it did happen before..." he muttered to himself. His eyes were wide.

"You're a Fire Bender?" Zuko found himself asking, though on reflection it didn't need to be stated. How else did the fire appear?

"I...not before today..." the boy answered, still gazing at the ceiling in amazement.

Zuko bit his lip to stop himself from blurting out angry proclamations. Tai, and the other group, obviously had no idea what just happened. If they came from a different world-they wouldn't have known about Bending. A world of non-Benders...the very thought made Zuko want to shudder.

As toddlers, children from the Fire Nation were screened intensely for signs of the skill. Almost all were discovered before they entered the first year of schooling; the more wealthy would be given private lessons to help master the talent, while the poorer were mandated to attend group studies several times a week. No Bender could misuse, or worse, ignore, the special ability. As a prince, Zuko had studied Fire Bending from professionals since the age of five; at the age of nine, he was at a level equal to his many of his tutors. Of course, Azula was at that same competent level at the age of seven...

But, as far as he knew, no child made it into his teenage years without knowledge of possessing the skill. It just didn't lie dormant like that. And here, this boy suddenly realized he could bend an element. Zuko almost felt sorry for him.

"So. Tai can shoot fire now. That's a new development," the blue-hair kid was saying.

"More tea?" Iroh asked. Zuko shook his head. Now was not the time for pleasantries and tea, despite his uncle's sincerest beliefs.

"I...what does Water Bending look like?" the older yellow boy asked. Blue Hair looked up sharply, obviously interested.

Katara cleared her throat. "Well, it depends...I mean, we can't create water, but we can manipulate it to almost any level."

"Can you freeze water into ice?" Blue asked suddenly.

"Could you make rain stop around you?" Yellow said at the same time. They looked at each other before directing their gazes at the Water Bender.

She frowned. "Those are pretty basic forms of Water Bending, sure..."

The room was silent for a few moments, before Tai chuckled. He seemed to have regained his senses after the display of Fire Bending. "Don't say it. You two are Water Benders now?"

"Problem with that, Fire Bender?" Yellow asked provokingly.

"Nope, Ishida. But fire could trump water any day."

"Shut it," Toph said, stomping on the ground. Both Yellow and Tai's chairs rose several feet; rather, Zuko noted, the ground underneath them did. They immediately quieted down, gripping the edges of their seats tightly. "So we have a Firebender and two Waterbenders from a world without Bending. Anyone else see a problem here?"

"Why not?" Suki asked. "They landed here. Maybe they were sent because they suddenly gained Bending?"

"How? I'd love to try Fire Bending...actually, no, I wouldn't...but, anyway, I can't. Because you have to be born a Bender," said Mai, raising an eyebrow.

There was silence once again, for a moment. Then Zuko realized something. _Three of them were somehow Benders._ "Is it only the three of you, or can the rest of you Bend?"

* * *

"...can the rest of you Bend?" Zuko asked.

Despite the strangeness of the situation, TK raised his hand-along with Izzy, Mimi, Sora, and Kari.

"Well. This is interesting," the actual Firebender said, slightly amused.

"I can...well, I think I put a dent in a stone wall earlier..." Mimi said.

"I had a similar situation to Mimi, then." This was from Izzy, who was still clutching his laptop. "Though I didn't look further into the occurrence."

"You? Not look into something? What, are you sick?" Tai joked.

Izzy glared. "My Digivice had just beeped, and my laptop was at home. I had other things on my mind." This made Tai stop his teasing.

"I'm not sure what a 'laptop' is, but it sounds like you two are Earthbenders," the girl who had explained Waterbending said.

TK thought for a moment. He had jumped up high, and then, the way down..."You said there was such thing as Airbenders?" he asked.

"Yeah, but don't hold your breath looking for any. There's only one," the girl standing against the wall said.

"Well, now there's three," Sora said calmly. TK looked at her in surprise. So she could fly like he could? "Why's there only one Airbender? Who is it?"

"It's a long story," the bald kid with the blue arrow tattoo said. "And I am."

Well, he had fallen from the sky and landed neatly when they had all first met. He might as well be an Airbender.

"Sora and TK are Airbenders. Joe and Matt are Waterbenders. Mimi and myself are Earthbenders. Kari, I'm going to assume that you're a Firebender like Tai, then?" Izzy listed off. The younger girl nodded quickly.

"And none of us knew about this...Bending...thingy until this morning, right?" Joe asked. One by one, the Digidestined shook their heads.

Iroh was smiling at the exchange between the two groups. "Now we have that settled. Zuko, I think it's time to show what you and your friends were given."

* * *

The young Firelord ran up the stairs; later, he would feel embarrassed by his enthusiasm, but he was tired of waiting, of being curious, of listening to the random theories given by the others of his group. Aang may be used to planning and biding his time, but Zuko was more adept at spur-of-the-moment decisions. Such as joining the Avatar. Or traveling with his uncle to the Earth Kingdom capital.

The Digi-egg was waiting for him on his bed, where he had left it. It was warm to the touch as he picked it up gently...whatever it was, it was an egg, and even royalty knew that eggs were easily breakable.

Very little had changed in the interim when he had run upstairs. Iroh was offering more tea to the newcomers and to his own acquaintances; most were politely refusing, their cups still full. The new male Firebender was drinking his consistently, but he was the only one that seemed interested in drinking at the moment.

Zuko took his seat again, holding his red egg on his lap. The Digidestined stared at it in shock-he was getting used to seeing that expression on each of their faces.

"Yes, we know it's a ginormous egg. You don't need to say that," Toph was irately saying. "You should tell us _why_ we each have a ginormous egg thing."

"...but those are Digi-eggs," the young yellow-hair, an Airbender, stated.

Toph thrust her arms to the ground. Fortunately, nothing appeared to fall over or explode. "We know that! Duh! But _what _are Digi-eggs, exactly?"

The redhead answered. "They're...um, they're eggs...that hatch to Digimon. I've never seen them outside of the Digiworld...though I suppose Tai and Kari did receive one at Heighten View Terrace..."

"So it'll hatch?" Sokka asked, looking at the egg on Zuko's lap expectantly. "Into what?"

"You can never tell," the younger yellow hair answered. "A Snowbotamon, a Puttimon...there are hundreds..."

"Are they fish?"

"Er...they can be?"

"Reptiles?" This time, Suki asked the one-word question.

"Sometimes."

"What do you mean, sometimes?"

"...well, there really isn't a set pattern to what type of creature the Digimon is..."

"Digimon?"

"Digital Monster...Izzy, help? I don't think they have 'digital' in this world..." Yellow looked to Red for assistance.

Izzy looked lost for a brief moment. Then he regained his composure and sat up straight. "Digital is a term for a medium of communication and data storage our world has created via electricity. Judging from the lack of wires and electronics here, I would assume you've never heard of it before."

Team Avatar shook their heads. Even Iroh seemed intrigued. "Communication? Not talking or writing, I would assume?"

"Er...it could be either, actually...I would show you on my laptop"-here he patted a yellow rectangular thing that he had been clutching conspicuously-"but I don't want to lose all energy too soon, since I don't think I'll be able to charge it here."

"You didn't have a problem using it in the Digiworld the first time," the older Yellow Waterbender said pointedly.

Izzy scratched behind his ear. "...I was immature then?"

Tai looked triumphant. "I always wanted to hear him say that! Thanks, Matt!"

Matt-that was a strange name-shrugged, but he seemed pleased with himself.

Zuko's mind was spinning. There was something they were discussing, but it didn't make sense to him. And now Matt and Tai were joking and teasing, as if this were normal for them.

Who knew? Maybe this _was _normal for these newcomers.

"So Digimon will hatch from these eggs?" Katara asked. "Mind if I go get mine?" Without waiting for a response, she ran up the stairs.

"When do they hatch?" Aang asked as the group settled around.

The young girl-the other Firebender-spoke for the first time. "You have to rub them."

The other Yellow nodded. "Yeah, you just rub it for a bit, and then..."

Sokka stared pointedly at Zuko. "What are you waiting for?"

With a sigh, he started to rub the smooth surface of the egg. For several seconds, nothing happened; his own friends leaned closer, watching-even the Digidestined were staring hard at the spectacle of the teen gently caressing the egg. Just when Zuko was about to give up and turn bright red from embarrassment, something changed.

The egg lurched, slightly. Another circle of rubbing...it made a harsh cracking sound, and the shell disappeared in a pop.

And in its place on Zuko's lap was a small ball of wavering smoke with two bright eyes staring up at him.


End file.
